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dqq.  aaA0  Quotjs  pBq  9JAd-q^0p  s4opi(j 
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roiq  esip39pi  oq  i  o^qissod  si  SBanay  osnoxa  oj^ 
•o.i0q  umo  siq  joj  uoiqBJinipB  siq  joj  XqoqM 
jiSii^  oaiSjoj  oq  pjBq  si  qi  ‘^s  oq  qqtux 
•(08l 'd)  quo  poquiod  qeAv  si  Suqaaj  snojjBAiqo 
jo  quiod  nj  jiSai^Y  jo  jfquouadns 

0qjj  •jfiqaod  oq  oq  saqouai  qnqq  sSniquA* 
-9SJ0A  Xtrein  sjioqqiOj;  pioq;  qgjp  aqq  jo  a*9j 
oqq  jo  ono  lsnpiij\[  fo  S9iv£  po> j  gyj^ 
ui  mood  oqqqq  jojgoBaS  qsora  u  jo  qoafqns  ©qq 
soijoj  qi  qnqq  sn  pgpumioj  qon  snq  SuBrj;  -jjy 
— aaixng;  oqq  ni  0qn©q;  jo  puBjsj  oqq  in  sqeA\p 
quids  ts0qiqoy  Aioq — sBraBsnBj  raoij  gjnq 
0qq  (06I  *d)  SuiqBpj  ui  qnqq  JGpuoA\  qsoinp? 
j  *Saip,e9.i  quBSBajd  pun  piotq  /jaiugjqxa 
si  ‘aumjoA  oqq  S0sop  qoiqAV  ‘spougd  quojajqip  qe 
pnira  q90jr)  oqq  iq  paAiaouoo  sb  uoqajj  jo  Aioq 
-siq  pun  aaqoBJBqo  0qq  no  u  0jo^  „  Suoj  oqj, 


■'  *iK. 


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Jfnmt  flu-  EUirarti  of 

PrnfeBanr  Ifcajamm  UrokUtribg?  Warfteli) 

lipqueatljpli  l"J  him  to 
tlje  Uibrartj  of 

fJrtttcpton  (JUipnlogtral  8>nmnarg 

LA  13 


. 


T 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  HISTORY 

OF 

EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES 


By  OSCAR  BROWNING,  M.A. 

SENIOR  FELLOW  AND  LECTURER  OF  KING’S  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE 
AND  SOMETIME  ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  ETON  COLLEGE 


NEW  YORK 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  FRANKLIN  SQUARE 

18  8  2 


>0 


TO  THE  SOCIETY 


OF 

KING’S  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE 

©!)is  Book  is  £tebicate& 


PREFACE. 


The  history  of  Educational  Theories  may  be  of  practical 
use  to  teachers  in  two  ways :  it  may  show  what  is  the 
historical  ground  for  retaining  existing  practices  in  edu¬ 
cation  or  for  substituting  others ;  and  it  may,  by  telling 
us  what  great  teachers  have  attempted,  and  what  great 
thinkers  have  conceived  as  possible  in  this  department, 
stimulate  us  to  complete  their  work,  or  to  carry  out  their 
principles  under  easier  conditions.  The  dead  hand  of 
spiritual  ancestry  lays  no  more  sacred  duty  on  posterity 
than  that  of  realizing  under  happier  circumstances  ideas 
which  the  stress  of  the  ao-e  or  the  shortness  of  life  has 

o 

deprived  of  their  accomplishment. 

The  writer  has  attempted  to  give  an  account  at  once 
popular  and  accurate  of  the  main  lines  of  thought  which 
have  been  followed  upon  educational  subjects,  so  far  as 
they  are  important  at  the  present  day.  He  is  conscious 
of  many  omissions  and  shortcomings  in  the  performance 
of  his  task.  His  chief  qualification  has  been  that  he  was 
for  fifteen  years  a  working  schoolmaster. 


Cambridge. 


CONTENTS 


chapter  ■  riua 

I.  Education  among  the  Greeks — Music  and  Gymnastic 

Theories  of  Plato  and  Aristotle . 1 

II.  Roman  Education — Oratory . 18 

III.  Humanistic  Education . 85 

IV.  The  Realists — Ratich  and  Coinenius . 51 

V.  The  Naturalists — Rabelais  and  Montaigne . 08 

VI.  English  Humanists  and  Realists  —  Roger  Ascham  and 

John  Milton . 85 

VII.  Locke . 102 

VIII.  Jesuits  and  Jansenists . 118 

IX.  Rousseau . 13-t 

X.  Pestalozzi . 1;,1 

XI.  Kant,  Fichte,  and  Herbart . 165 

XU.  The  English  Public  School . 181 


AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED. 


'he  principal  authorities  used  are — 

Schmidt’s  Geschichte  der  Padagogik.  Co  then,  1868. 

Schmidt’s  Encyclopadie  des  gesammten  Erziehungs-  und  Un- 
terrichtswesens.  Gotha,  1876. 

Essays  on  Educational  Reformers.  By  R.  H.  Quick. 

Histoire  Critique  des  Doctrines  de  V Education  en  France. 
Par  Gabriel  Compayre.  Hachette,  1879. 

Memoirs  of  German  Teachers  and  Educators.  By  Henry 
Barnard  Hartford,  U.S.A. 

Padagogisclie  Bibliothelc.  Eine  Sammlung  der  wichtiqsten 
padagogischen  Sckriften  alterer  und  neuerer  Zeit.  Julius 
Ivlonne,  Berlin. 

Arnstadt  (F.  A.),  Frangois  Rabelais  und  sein  Traite  d' Educa¬ 
tion.  Leipsic,  1872. 

Ascham’s  Scholemaster.  Edited  by  J.  L.  B.  Mayor,  with 
Notes. 

Locke’s  Thoughts  on  Education.  Edited  by  R.  H.  Quick. 

Sainte-Beuve’s  Port-Royal. 

Maxwell  Byte’s  History  of  Eton  College. 

I  he  writer  has  treated  some  of  the  subjects  contained  in  this 
book  in  a  lecture  delivered  before  the  Royal  Institution 
on  November  1,  1876,  in  an  article  on  the  “  History  of 
Education  ”  in  the  new  edition  of  the  Encyclopcedia  Bri- 
tannica ,  and  in  various  articles  published  in  the  Journal 
of  Education. 


HISTORY 


OF 

EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EDUCATION  AMONG  THE  GREEKS - MUSIC  AND  GYMNASTIC 

THEORIES  OF  PLATO  AND  ARISTOTLE.1 

To  those  who  begin  the  study  of  the  historical  develop¬ 
ment  of  educational  theories  some  preliminary  caution  is 
necessary.  We  shall  find  that  education  has  always  been 
a  favorite  problem  with  philosophers.  Those  who  have 
wished  to  reform  or  to  reorganize  the  world,  meeting  with 
many  difficulties  in  dealing  with  the  mass  of  grown-up 
people,  have  turned  their  eyes  to  the  more  hopeful  body 
of  ingenuous  youth,  whose  minds  are  like  white  paper  or 
pliant  wax.  If  only  the  rising  generation  can  be  directed 
in  the  proper  path,  the  regeneration  of  the  human  race 
will  be  a  reality  instead  of  a  dream.  Experience  ought 
by  this  time  to  have  taught  us  that  these  hopes  are  mis- 

1  In  this  chapter  I  have  been  under  special  obligations  to  Pro¬ 
fessor  A.  S.  Wilkins’s  “  Essay  on  National  Education  in  Greece”  : 
London,  1873,  and  to  Mr.  Nettleship’s  article  on  “  The  Theory  of 
Education  in  the  Republic  of  Plato,”  contained  in  “  Hellenica”  : 
Rivingtons,  1880. 


2 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


leading.  From  one  point  of  view  education  can  do  much, 
from  another  it  can  do  little  or  nothing.  A  child  is  born 
into  the  world  with  its  faculties  given  to  it  once  for  all. 
No  power  can  be  put  into  it  which  is  not  there  already. 
Its  parents  and  a  long  line  of  ancestors  have  determined 
of  what  nature  it  shall  be.  As  it  grows  up,  and  we  fancy 
that  we  can  fathom  its  capabilities  and  gauge  its  strength, 
we  forget  the  countless  capacities  which  lie  hidden  in  the 
simple  germ.  The  diseases  and  the  eccentricities  of  our 
ancestors  lie  in  wait  for  us  at  every  new  epoch  of  our 
lives.  We  pass  as  it  were  down  the  vista  of  a  spectral 
avenue  in  which  our  forefathers  stand,  ranged  in  counter 
lines,  ready  at  the  proper  moment  to  lay  their  chilly  hand 
on  their  descendant.  Each  year  of  life  beats  and  moulds 
the  boy  into  the  likeness  of  his  father. 

Again,  youth  cannot  be  everything  which  it  promises  to 
be.  A  choice  must  be  made.  A  large  part  of  the  fasci¬ 
nation  of  boyhood  lies  in  the  uncertainty  of  its  future. 
A  teacher  is  apt  to  think  that  his  bright  pupil  may 
be  anything.  He  shows  germs  of  qualities,  any 
one  of  which — all  of  which — he  imagines  may  come 
to  fruit.  Yet  it  is  not  so.  Distinction  in  one  direction 
can  only  be  obtained  by  repression  in  another.  A 
strong  nature  can  only  be  produced  by  lopping  and 
pruning  the  branches  which  it  sends  out  on  all  sides 
into  the  circumambient  air.  The  human  powers  are 
limited.  The  brain  has  only  a  definite  capacity,  and  to 
work  well  it  must  be  charged  with  blood.  rLhc  quantity 
of  blood  is  limited,  and  cannot  be  drawn  to  the  brain 
without  being  taken  from  some  other  part,  the  stomach 
or  the  limbs.  Emotion,  it  is  true,  may  be  transformed 
into  intellect,  the  force  of  passion  may  be  absorbed  by 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


3 


the  growing  will  ;  but  the  physical  basis  on  which  the 
senses,  the  intellect,  the  will,  and  the  emotions  rest  is 
but  a  limited  quantity  for  each  individual. 

To  the  teacher  who  has  assimilated  these  important 
truths  there  remains  yet  another  difficulty,  arising  from 
the  struggle  of  man  with  his  environment.  The  teacher 
does  his  best  to  develop  harmoniously  all  the  faculties 
of  the  individual,  to  create  a  sound  body  for  the  sound 
mind,  to  take  care  that  all  the  fibres  of  the  brain  are 
called  into  play  and  roused  to  full  activity,  and  that 
their  work  is  properly  distributed  among  the  inherited 
capacities  of  the  pupil.  He  will  consider  his  object 
gained  if  his  pupil  has  attained  to  the  best  development 
of  which  he  is  capable,  if  no  powers  have  been  repressed 
excepting  so  far  as  is  necessary  for  the  proper  activity 
of  others.  But  suppose  that  this  result  has  been  pro¬ 
duced,  and  no  teacher  can  boast  that  he  has  as  yet  com¬ 
pletely  produced  it,  what  assurance  has  he  that  these 
qualities  will  be  required  by  the  world  ?  That  moves  on 
its  way  heedless  of  individual  exceptions.  The  perfectly 
educated  man  may  find  no  place  for  himself  in  the 
economy  of  things.  If  we  murmur  at  this  the  world 
replies,  “  The  fault  is  with  you  ;  with  all  your  science  you 
cannot  educate  as  I  educate.”  Consider  the  new  indus¬ 
tries  of  the  last  fifty  years,  what  necessities  have  been 
created  by  railways  and  telegraphs.  The  skill  of  a  points 
man,  an  engine-driver,  or  a  telegraphist  requires  quali¬ 
ties  and  knowledge  which  probably  did  not  exist  be¬ 
fore  the  present  century.  They  have  been  produced 
by  no  school,  taught  by  no  masters.  As  Persius  says, 
the  belly  was  their  teacher,  the  necessity  of  making  a  live¬ 
lihood  formed  them  into  these  moulds.  So,  then,  we 


4 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


have  this  antagonism  between  the  individual  and  the 
world.  The  individual  requires  something  for  the  full 
satisfaction  of  his  being  ;  the  world  requires  something 
else,  and  will  have  it.  What  are  we  to  do  ?  Are  we  to 
give  the  highest  education  possible  irrespective  of  prac¬ 
tical  needs,  or  are  we  to  give  up  education  altogether, 
and  let  the  world  do  what  it  will  with  its  own  ?  This  is 
the  first  great  problem  which  meets  ns  at  the  threshold  of 
the  subject. 

Savage  tribes  solve  the  question  by  adopting,  uncom¬ 
promisingly,  the  practical  view.  An  Australian  or  a  Zulu 
is  trained  for  the  immediate  ends  of  existence.  To  be  a 
keen  hunter  or  a  successful  warrior  is  the  first  necessity 
of  his  life,  and  tradition  has  built  up  a  scheme  of  educa¬ 
tion  to  suit  these  ends.  We  will  pass  over  the  earlier 
forms  of  education — the  Chinese,  the  Indian,  the  Egyp¬ 
tian,  and  the  Jewish.  Little  is  known  about  any  of  them 
except  the  Jewish,  not  enough  to  make  them  practically 
valuable  to  ourselves.  On  the  other  hand  the  principles 
of  Greek  education  cannot  be  omitted.  The  Greeks  were 
the  first  to  teach  education  as  a  science  ;  the  results  which 
they  produced  were  admirable.  We  have  a  full  account 
both  of  their  ordinary  practice  and  of  the  ideal  schemes 
sketched  by  Plato  and  Aristotle  ;  while  their  system  of 
education  is  exercising  a  considerable  effect  upon  the 
world  at  the  present  day.  We  cannot  understand  the 
history  of  education  since  the  Renaissance  unless  we 
make  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  Greek  and  Roman  tra¬ 
ditions  which  so  profoundly  affected  Europe  at  the  re¬ 
vival  of  learning. 

Until  the  time  of  Alexander  the  main  subjects  of  edu¬ 
cation  among  the  Greeks  were  music  and  gymnastics, 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


that  is,  bodily  training  and  mental  culture,  music 
(piov&iK?j)  or  the  science  of  the  muses,  being  divided 
into  the  preliminary  training  of  grammar,  and  music 
properly  so  called.  At  a  late  period  more  subjects  were 
introduced,  and  that  series  of  studies  came  into  use  which 
was  known  as  syHVxXiOo  TtaidEia,  or“  encyclopaedia,” 
“  orbis  doctrinse,  ”  as  Seneca  calls  it.  This  was  composed 
of  the  seven  arts  :  grammar,  rhetoric,  philosophy  or  dia¬ 
lectic,  arithmetic,  music,  geometry,  and  astronomy, 
which,  continuing  through  the  Roman  period,  lasted  un¬ 
der  the  name  of  Trivium  and  Quadrivium  until  the  close 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  Not  much  was  taught  until  the 
seventh  year,  and  the  earliest  teaching  was  by  myths. 
The  Greek  day  began  very  early,  indeed  with  sunrise  ;  it 
was  interrupted  between  ten  and  twelve  by  the  business  of 
the  market-place,  and  the  remaining  hours  were  spoken  of 
as  afternoon  and  evening.  Boys  went  to  school  in  the  early 
morning,  and  a  second  time  after  breakfast.  They  were 
accompanied  through  the  streets  by  the  TCaidayGoyos, 
a  faithful  slave  who  had  charge  of  their  moral  supervision. 
The  literary  teaching  was  followed  by  athletics,  the 
palfestra  by  the  bath.  Six  hours  a  day  was  regarded  both 
by  Greeks  and  Romans  as  the  proper  limit  of  study. 
There  were  occasional  holidays,  and  the  hot  time  of  the 
year  was  given  up  to  vacation  as  is  still  the  practice  in 
many  countries. 

The  first  duty  of  a  Greek  boy  was  to  learn  his  letters. 
This  was  coincident  with  learning  to  swim,  so  that  u  one 
who  knows  neither  swimming  nor  his  letters”  was  the 
Greek  term  for  an  ignoramus.  The  methods  of  teaching: 
were  very  similar  to  our  own  ;  there  was  the  same  diffi¬ 
culty  of  giving  the  letters  a  name  differing  from  their 


6 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOKIES. 


power  in  sound,  the  same  attempts  at  shortening  labor  and 
making  learning  easy  and  without  tears.  The  sophists 
invented  methods  of  compendious  instruction,  and  the 
alphabetical  tragedy  of  Callias,  which  has  sometimes  been 
regarded  as  a  satire  upon  them,  is  more  probably  an  at¬ 
tempt  to  teach  letters  in  play.  A  Greek  child  had  un¬ 
doubtedly  an  advantage  over  us  in  school  books  ;  we 
have  nothing  to  compare  with  the  grace,  beauty,  and  fun 
of  the  Odyssee.  Full  of  charm  as  it  is  to  an  English  boy 
or  girl,  it  must  have  been  far  more  so  to  those  who 
breathed  the  same  pure  air  and  gazed  on  the  same  blue 
sea  as  its  hero  and  its  author.  Reading  was  taught  with 
the  greatest  pains,  the  utmost  care  was  taken  with  the  in¬ 
tonation  of  the  voice,  and  the  articulation  of  the  throat. 
We  have  lost  the  power  of  distinguishing  between  accent 
and  quantity.  The  Greeks  did  not  acquire  it  without 
long  and  anxious  training  of  the  ear  and  the  vocal  organs. 
This  was  the  duty  of  the  phonascus.  Homer  was  the 
common  study  of  all  Greeks.  The  Iliad  and  Odyssee 
were  at  once  the  Bible,  the  Shakespeare,  the  Robinson 
Crusoe,  and  the  Arabian  Nights  of  the  Hellenic  race. 
Long  passages  and  indeed  whole  books  were  learned  by 
heart.  The  Greek,  as  a  rule,  learned  no  language  but  his 
own.  Next  to  reading  and  repetition  came  writing,  which 
was  carefully  taught.  Composition  naturally  followed, 
and  the  burden  of  correcting  exercises,  which  still  weighs 
down  the  backs  of  schoolmasters,  dates  from  these  early 
times.  Closely  connected  with  reading  and  writing  is  the 
art  of  reckoning,  and  the  science  of  numbers  leads  us  easily 
to  music.  Plato  considered  arithmetic  as  the  best  spur  to 
a  sleepy  and  uninstructed  spirit  ;  we  see  from  the  Platonic 
dialogues  how  mathematical  problems  employed  the  mind 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


7 


and  thoughts  of  young  Athenians.  Many  of  the  more 
difficult  arithmetical  operations  were  solved  by  geometrical 
methods,  but  the  Greeks  carried  the  art  of  teaching  num¬ 
bers  to  considerable  refinement.  They  used  the  abacus, 
and  had  an  elaborate  method  of  finger  reckoning  which 
was  serviceable  up  to  10,000.  Drawing  was  the  crown¬ 
ing  accomplishment  to  this  vestibule  of  training. 

By  the  time  the  fourteenth  year  was  completed,  the 
Greek  boy  would  have  begun  to  devote  himself  seriously 
to  the  practice  of  athletics.  The  ardor  shown  in  their  pur¬ 
suit  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans  is  often  used  as  an  argu¬ 
ment  for  our  exaggerated  devotion  to  them  at  the  present 
day.  There  is  no  doubt  that  by  this  double  attention  to 
the  welfare  of  mind  and  body,  the  Greeks  became  the 
most  beautiful  as  well  as  the  most  gifted  of  mankind. 
But  it  is  a  question  whether  in  our  modern  race  after 
cups  and  colors  we  are  following  the  Greeks  at  all,  and  not 
rather  the  factions  of  the  Roman  circus  and  the  corruption 
of  the  lower  Empire.  Much  as  the  Greeks  prized  athletic 
distinction,  they  held  professional  athletes  in  very  little 
honor.  They  would  have  regarded  with  contempt  a  gen¬ 
tleman  who  thought  it  a  desirable  object  in  life  to  be  a 
prize-fighter,  a  gamekeeper,  or  a  coachman.  The  antag¬ 
onism  between  work  and  games  was  a  practical  difficulty 
to  them  as  it  is  to  us.  It  was  indeed  in  the  palaestra  that 
Socrates  found  his  readiest  hearers  and  dispensed  his  ab- 
strusest  lore.  Can  we  imagine  a  dialogue  such  as  the 
Theaetetus  being  held  in  an  English  cricket-ground,  with 
the  players  waiting  for  their  innings  ?  But  Euripides 
denounces  the  race  of  athletes  in  strong  language,  and 
there  are  other  signs  that  in  his  time  the  danger  of  their 
excessive  cultivation  was  being  recognized.  The  enthu- 


8 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOKIES. 


siasm  shown  by  Homer  and  Pindar  for  bodily  strength 
had  become  weaker  in  the  days  of  Pericles.  The  Greeks 
did  not  think,  as  we  are  apt  to  do,'  that  athletics  are  the 
best  guarantee  for  manliness  of  character  and  the  best 
safeguard  against  effeminacy.  They  knew  that  the  mind 
and  body  cannot  be  profitably  exercised  at  the  same  time, 
and  that  the  mind  and  not  the  body  is  the  seat  of  the 
higher  aspirations.  The  Spartans,  whose  name  has  be¬ 
come  proverbial  for  hardiness,  were  regarded  by  the 
Athenians  as  brutalized  by  their  training. 

As  gymnastics  was  intended  to  harmonize  the  powers 
of  the  body,  so  music  was  to  order  and  to  regulate  the 
soul.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  what  the  Greeks  meant 
by  music.  If  we  could  fully  realize  this  we  should  have 
made  their  system  of  education  as  clear  to  us  as  our  own. 
In  one  sense  music  is  equivalent  to  culture,  to  the  whole 
rano*e  of  studies  which  soften  and  refine  the  mind  and 
character.  In  another  sense  it  is  undoubtedly  the  same 
as  what  we  mean  by  music.  Greek  music  differed  from  our 
own  in  not  being  polyphonic.  The  Greeks  would  not  have 
understood  or  have  appreciated  the  various  instruments, 
and  the  mingled  effects  of  an  orchestra.  They  were  ac¬ 
customed  to  hear  only  one  instrument  at  a  time,  or  at  the 
most  an  instrument  accompanying  the  voice.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Greek  had  a  clearer  perception  of  the  di¬ 
visions  of  the  scale.  A  Greek  who  could  not  distinguish 
between  semi-tones,  or  even  between  quarter-tones,  would 
have  been  thought  as  ignorant  as  a  classical  scholar  who 
quoted  Homer  with  a  false  quantity.  Also  they  were  far 
more  sensitive  than  laymen  usually  are  among  ourselves 
to  the  essential  characteristics  of  different  keys.  We 
have  abundant  evidence  that  every  Greek  boy  was  carefully 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


9 


trained  in  tlie  theory  and  practice  of  the  musical  art,  and 
that  it  w  as  regarded  by  masters  of  all  schools  as  of  the 
first  importance  to  intellect  and  morality.  Plato,  Aris¬ 
totle,  and  Aristophanes  agree  in  this.  Music  wras  not  only 
gymnastic  of  the  ear  and  the  voice,  but  of  the  spirit, 
and  the  foundation  of  all  the  higher  life.  Its  rhythm  and 
harmony  penetrated  into  the  soul  and  worked  powerfully 
upon  it.  In  union  with  poetry  it  led  the  soul  to  virtue 
and  inspired  it  with,  courage.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
if  a  Greek  youth  had  by  continuous  practice  become 
stronger  than  a  bull,  more  truthful  than  the  Godhead,  and 
wiser  than  the  most  learned  Egyptian  priest,  his  fellow- 
citizens  would  shrug  their  shoulders  at  him  with  contempt 
if  he  did  not  possess  what  a  series  of  music  and  gymnastics 
can  alone  give  a  sense  of  gracefulness  and  proportion 
This  careful  musical  training  might  have  been  expected 
by  a  Greek  to  do  that  service  for  the  mind  which  in  later 
da)  s  has  been  attributed  with  much  less  reason  to  accurate 
scholarship.  The  development  of  a  sense  of  harmony, 
the  using  of  the  mind  to  decide  on  subtle  questions  by  the 
delicate  judgment  of  taste  rather  than  by  the  coarser  bal¬ 
ances  of  reason  and  argument — all  this  might  be  expected 
to  proceed  from  the  nice  appreciation  of  the  character  of 
sounds,  and  of  the  ethical  effect  of  melodies.  Plato  in 
his  u  Republic”  defends  the  power  of  music,  11  because 
rhythm  and  harmony  find  their  way  into  the  secret  places 
of  the  soul,  on  which  they  mightily  fasten,  bearing  grace 
in  their  movements,  and  making  the  soul  graceful  of  him 
who  is  rightly  educated,  or  ungraceful  if  ill-educated  ;  and 
also  because  he  who  has  received  this  true  education  of 
the  inner  being  will  most  shrewdly  perceive  omissions  or 

faults  in  art  or  nature,  and  with  a  true  taste,  while  he 
2 


10 


educational  theories. 


praises,  and  rejoices  over,  and  receives  into  his  soul  the 
good,  and  becomes  noble  and  good,  he  will  justly  blame 
and  hate  the  bad  now  in  the  days  of  his  youth,  even  before 
he  is  able  to  know  the  reason  of  the  thing  ;  and  when 
reason  comes  he  will  recognize  and  salute  her  as  a  friend 
with  whom  his  education  has  made  him  long  familiar. 

(“  Rep.”  iii.  401-2,  Jowett’s  Translation.)  Nothing 
shows  the  importance  which  the  Greeks  attached  to  music 
more  than  their  strong  condemnation  of  the  flute  as  com¬ 
pared  with  the  lyre.  The  one  was  the  basis  of  true  wis¬ 
dom  and  morality,  the  other  the  instrument  of  general 
laxity  and  corruption.  It  would  be  difficult  for  the  most 
ardent  defender  of  classics  to  condemn  in  stronger  lan¬ 
guage  the  shallowness  and  superficiality  of  “  modern 
sides.”  The  influence  of  music  was  developed  still  fur¬ 
ther  by  the  practice  of  singing  and  dancing. 

Bearing  in  mind  these  general  principles  of  Greek  edu¬ 
cation,  it  will  be  more  easy  for  us  to  follow  the  training 
which  Plato  prescribes  for  his  ideal  state.  According  to 
him  education  is  nurture  {rpoepr/).  It  is  very  powerful, 
it  can  determine  whether  a  nature  shall  be  wild  and  ma¬ 
levolent,  or  rich  with  benefits  to  mankind.  But  it  includes 
not  merely  instruction  or  training,  but  all  the  influences 
which  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the  soul.  We  must  ap¬ 
proach  the  problem  with  a  psychological  analysis.  The 
soul  is  made  up  of  three  parts  :  1,  the  appetite 
(£7Ti0vjj.{cx),  which  is  wild  but  capable  of  being  tamed  ;  2, 
the  spirit  {0v fioi),  the  element  of  courage,  which  may 
be  enlisted  on  the  side  either  of  good  or  evil  ;  3,  the  phi¬ 
losophic  element,  the  source  of  gentleness,  of  sociability, 
of  love,  of  refinement,  of  culture,  and  of  wisdom.  Now 
the  duty  of  education  is  to  control  the  appetite,  and  so  to 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


11 


balance  the  other  elements  of  the  soul  that  each  may  tend 
to  the  perfection  of  the  other.  If  the  philosophic  side 
of  the  soul  is  too  much  encouraged  its  gentleness  may 
become  effeminacy,  its  sensitiveness  irritability,  its  sim¬ 
ple  love  be  changed  into  feverish  desire.  On  the  other 
hand  the  exaggerated  practice  of  athletics  will  swallow  up 
the  intellect,  courage  will  become  brutality,  and  high 
spirit  insolence.  The  business  of  education  is  to  recon¬ 
cile  these  two  elements  in  harmonious  proportion. 

Plato  finds  in  the  State  the  same  elements  that  he  dis¬ 
covers  in  the  individual.  The  State  was  merely  the  citi¬ 
zen  writ  large.  Philosophers  represented  the  wisdom  of 
the  State,  warriors  its  courage,  the  mob  its  passions, 
which  were  to  be  kept  under  due  control.  In  the  har¬ 
mony  of  these  various  members  lies  justice,  the  goal  and 
object  of  its  constitution.  All  education  is  to  be  con¬ 
trolled  by  the  State.  Even  marriages  are  to  be  directed 
by  it.  v  Children  are  to  remain  in  the  family  till  the  end 
of  the  sixth  year,  but  even  then  their  nurture  and  direc¬ 
tion  is  carefully  prescribed.  •  They  are  to  be  taught  moral¬ 
ity  by  myths  and  tales.  Plato  considers  the  cardinal 
virtues  of  conduct  to  be  :  honor  to  parents,  love  of  fellow- 
citizens,  courage,  truthfulness,  self-control  ; 1  and  he  evi  - 
dently  considers  the  education  of  character  to  be  more 
important  than  the  usual  rudiments  of  technical  educa¬ 
tion,  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic.  From  the  seventh 
year  the  child  belongs  to  the  State.  Till  the  tenth  year 
the  training  is  to  be  principally  in  gymnastic,  which  is, 
however,  to  be  continued  through  the  whole  life.  From 
the  tenth  to  the  thirteenth  year  the  child  is  taught  to  read 
and  write  ;  from  the  fourteenth  to  the  sixteenth  he  learns 

1  “  Hellenica,”  p.  97. 


12 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOUIES. 


poetry  and  music.  Plato’s  sense  of  the  importance  of 
music  lias  been  already  mentioned,  but  we  may  here  em¬ 
phasize  the  close  connection  which  he  sees  between  it  and 
the  stability  of  order  in  the  State.  “  The  introduction 
of  a  new  kind  of  music,”  he  says,  “  must  be  shunned  as 
imperilling  the  whole  State,  since  styles  of  music  are 
never  disturbed  without  affecting  the  most  important 
political  institutions.”  “It  is  here  in  music  that  our 
guardians  should  erect  their  guard-house,  for  it  is  here 
that  lawlessness  easily  creeps  in  unawares,  in  the  guise  of 
amusement  and  professing  to  do  no  mischief.  Gradually 
gaining  a  lodgment,  it  quietly  insinuates  itself  into  man¬ 
ners  and  customs.  From  thence  it  issues  in  greater  force 
and  makes  its  way  into  mutual  compacts  ,  fiom  compacts 
it  goes  on  to  attack  laws  and  constitutions,  displaying  the 
utmost  impudence  until  it  ends  by  overturning  everything, 
both  in  public  and  in  private.”  Plato  wishes  that  the 
years  from  seventeen  to  twenty  shall  be  devoted  mainly  to 
athletics  as  a  preparation  for  the  art  of  war.  But  he  care¬ 
fully  distinguishes  between  the  gymnastic  training  of  the 
professional  athlete  and  that  of  the  free-born  citizen. 
“  The  habit  of  body  cultivated  by  trained  fighters  in  the 
palaestra  is  a  sleepy  kind  of  regimen,  and  produces  a  pre¬ 
carious  state  of  health.  Bo  you  not  observe  that  men  in 
regular  training  sleep  their  life  away,  and  if  they  depart 
only  slightly  from  the  prescribed  diet  are  attacked  by  seri¬ 
ous  maladies  in  their  worst  form  ?  A  better  conceived 
regimen  is  required  for  our  athletes  of  war,  who  must  be 
wakeful  like  watch  dogs,  and  possess  the  utmost  quickness 
both  of  eye  and  ear  ;  and  who  are  so  exposed  when  on 
service  to  variations  in  the  water  they  drink,  and  in  the 
rest  of  their  food,  also  vicissitudes  of  sultry  heats  and 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


13 


wintry  storms,  that  it  will  not  do  for  them  to  be  of  pre¬ 
carious  health.  The  best  gymnastic  will  be  sister  to  the 
music  we  described  a  little  while  ago,  a  simple  moderate 
system,  especially  that  assigned  to  our  fighting  men.” 

At  the  age  of  twenty  men  are  to  be  chosen  for  their 
different  employments  ;  the  next  ten  years  they  are  to 
devote  to  the  study  of  the  sciences  coupled  with  military 
service,  and  the  formation  of  the  character  by  practical 
life  ;  the  following  five  years  are  to  be  entirely  devoted 
to  dialectic.  Of  this  it  is  difficult  to  give  an  account 
without  going  more  deeply  into  the  Platonic  philosophy 
than  would  suit  our  purpose.  “  It  lies,”  Plato  says, 
“  like  a  coping  stone  upon  the  top  of  the  sciences.  It  is 
the  queen  science  which  holds  the  key  of  all  the  rest.  It 
carries  back  its  hypotheses  to  the  very  first  principle  of 
all  in  order  to  establish  them  firmly.  Finding  the  eye  of 
the  soul  absolutely  buried  in  a  swamp  of  barbarous  igno¬ 
rance,  it  gently  draws  and  raises  it  upward,  employing  as 
handmaids  in  this  work  of  revolution  the  arts  which  we 
have  discussed.  ”  “  The  dialectician  is  he  who  takes 

thoughtful  account  of  the  essence  of  each  thing.  As  far 
as  a  person  has  no  just  account  to  give  to  himself  and  to 
others,  so  far  he  fails  to  exercise  pure  reason  on  the  sub¬ 
ject.  ”  “  Unless  a  person  can  strictly  define  by  a  process 

of  thought  the  essential  form  of  the  good,  abstracted  from 
everything  else  ;  and  unless  he  can  fight  his  way  as  it 
were  through  all  objections,  studying  to  disprove  them, 
not  by  the  rules  of  opinion  but  by  those  of  real  existence, 
and  unless  in  all  these  conflicts  he  travels  to  his  conclusion 
without  making  one  false  step  in  his  train  of  thought, 
unless  he  docs  all  this,  shall  you  not  assert  that  he  knows 
not  the  essence  of  good,  nor  any  other  good  thing,  and 


14 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


that  any  phantom  of  it  which  he  may  chance  to  apprehend 
is  the  fruit  of  opinion  and  not  of  science,  and  that  he 
dreams  and  sleeps  away  his  present  life,  and  never  wakes 
on  this  side  of  that  future  world  in  which  he  is  doomed 
to  sleep  forever.”  The  fifteen  years  of  training  in  sci¬ 
ences  and  dialectics  are  to  be  followed,  in  Plato’s  scheme, 
by  fifteen  more  years  of  public  service.  To  use  the  words 
of  Mr.  Nettleship,1  “  Not  till  he  has  passed  through  this 
trial,  and  shown  himself  foremost  both  in  action  and 
knowledge,  is  he  to  be  made  ‘  to  turn  the  eye  of  his  soul 
upward,  and  look  on  the  very  good  itself  which  is  the 
universal  source  of  light.’  Then  at  last  the  world  will  be 
open  before  his  mind,  ordered  and  intelligible,  connected 
and  pervaded  by  a  single  principle,  which  he  can  trace  in 
many  forms  and  combinations,  but  can  distinguish  from 
them  all.  Then  the  shadows  and  images  of  everyday  life 
will  acquire  their  true  meaning,  for  he  will  see  through 
them  and  over  them  to  the  realities  which  they  reflect. 
The  isolated  and  self-contradictory  maxims  of  popular 
morality  will  interpret  themselves  into  fragments  of  a 
single  perfection  which  human  life  suggests  although  it 
does  not  realize  it.  The  separate  sciences  will  cease  to 
talk  1  in  dreams,’  and  will  point  beyond  themselves  to 
the  waking  vision  of  an  absolute  being.  Philosophy  will 
be  not  a  cunning  device  of  words  or  an  occupation  for  a 
listless  hour,  but  the  articulate  language  of  truth  which  a 
lifetime  is  too  short  for  learning.  Only  eternity  can  in¬ 
terpret  that  language  fully,  but  to  understand  it  is  the 
nearest  approach  to  heaven  on  earth,  and  to  study  it  is 
true  education.” 

There  are  important  differences  between  the  teaching  of 

1  “Hellenica,”  p.  179. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


15 


Aristotle  and  that  of  Plato.  Aristotle  was  before  every¬ 
thing  a  scientific  and  practical  inquirer.1  Instead  of  con¬ 
sidering,  as  Plato  did,  ideas  as  the  only  real  existences 
which  underlie  phenomena,  he  regarded  them  as  abstrac¬ 
tions  from  phenomena.  Men,  he  said,  have  souls,  and 
there  are  traces  of  souls  in  animals,  hut  men  have  reason, 
which  animals  have  not.  This  reason  is  partly  active  and 
partly  passive,  and  is  to  some  extent  subordinate  to  the 
lower  appetites.  Now  the  highest  object  of  man  is  the 
attainment  of  happiness,  and  the  highest  happiness  of 
man  is  to  be  reached  by  perfect  virtue.  The  highest  vir¬ 
tue  is  that  of  the  reason.  This  is  realized  in  the  life  of 
contemplation,  which  is  higher  than  the  life  of  action. 
We  cannot  as  mortal  men  attain  to  it,  but  in  proportion 
as  wre  do  attain  to  it  so  do  we  become  divine.  The  end 
of  life,  and  therefore  of  education,  is  the  attainment  at 
once  of  intellectual  and  of  moral  virtue,  which  brino-  with 
them  the  truest  pleasures  of  which  man  is  capable.  The 
means  of  obtaining  this  are  three — nature,  habit,  and 
instruction.  In  education,  then,  which  presumes  natural 
gifts  on  which  to  work,  habit  mustTcome  first,  instruction 
second.  The  semi-rational  part  of  our  nature  develops  be¬ 
fore  the  reasoning  part  ;  the  body  develops  before  both. 
Therefore  the  order  of  education  must  be — 1,  bodily  ;  2, 
moral  ;  3,  scientific.  Of  bodily  occupations  Aristotle 

carefully  excludes  those  which  are  fit  only  for  craftsmen 
or  slaves.  The  city  states  for  which  he  wrote  were  in 
fact  aristocracies,  resting  on  what  Curtins  calls  a  “  broad 
and  convenient  basis  of  personal  servitude.”  First  then 

1  Aristotle’s  views  on  education  are  found  in  the  “  Ethics”  and 
“  Politics.”  There  is  some  difference  in  the  views  expressed  in 
the  two  books. 


16 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


in  education  will  come  gymnastics,  but  this  is  not  in¬ 
tended  to  make  men  athletes,  to  develop  mere  brute 
force,  but  to  produce  courage,  which  is  a  mean  between 
the  unbridled  wildness  of  the  animal  and  the  sluggishness 
of  the  coward.  Too  much  weight  must  not  be  given  to 
athletics  lest  the  child  be  spoiled,  and  body  and  mind  must 
not  be  hard-worked  at  the  same  time.  Gymnastics  arc 
only  regarded  as  a  preparation  for  the  education  of  the 
soul.  This  is  done  by  music.  But  here  also  we  must 
have  moderation.  The  student  must  not  degenerate  into 
an  artist.  An  artist  practises  music  not  for  his  own  per¬ 
fection  but  to  give  pleasure,  and  that  not  always  of  the 
highest  kind.  Music  in  general  education  is  always  to  be 
used  for  one  of  three  purposes  :  either  for  education 
proper,  or  for  the  training  of  the  affections,  or  for  the 
rational  employment  of  leisure.  And  it  will  be  found 
that  different  kinds  of  melodies  have  very  different  effects 
in  these  respects.  Next  to  music  comes  the  art  of  draw¬ 
ing,  which  will  encourage  and  develop  a  sense  of  the  beau¬ 
tiful.  Next  is  mathematics,  which  is  purely  intellectual 
and  has  no  effect  on  the  moral  nature.  Dialectic  is  the 
foundation  of  scientific  training.  Its  use  is  of  three  kinds  : 
1,  as  a  gymnastic  of  the  mind  ;  2,  as  a  means  of  inter¬ 
course  with  others  for  the  purpose  of  persuading  them  ; 
3,  for  the  learning  of  philosophic  sciences,  so  as  more 
readily  to  distinguish  between  what  is  true  and  what  is 
false.  It  leads  the  way  to  higher  speculation,  and  helps 
to  the  knowledge  of  each  separate  detail.  Connected 
with  dialectic  is  rhetoric,  the  object  of  which  is  not  to 
persuade  but  to  know  in  each  case  what  is  useful  for  the 
obtaining  of  credit  and  belief.  Philosophy,  according  to 
Aristotle,  has  for  its  object  the  knowledge  of  the  first 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


17 


cause,  and  by  this  we  learn  to  know  everything  else.  The 
highest  of  the  practical  sciences  is  politics,  which  has  for 
its  object  the  attainment  of  the  highest  good — that  is, 
happiness  in  the  State.  It  requires  a  deep  moral  nature 
for  its  pursuit,  and  therefore  is  not  suited  for  the  study 
of  youth. 

Such  is  a  general  sketch  of  Greek  education  both  from 
its  practical  and  its  ideal  side.  There  is  much  in  it  that 
may  be  useful  to  ourselves,  but  much  is  omitted  to  which 
we  attach  great  importance.  There  is  no  learning  of 
languages,  no  arrangements  are  made  for  instruction  in 
Persian,  Latin,  Phoenician,  or  Egyptian.  There  is  no 
history  in  the  curriculum,  unless  we  class  legends  under 
this  head.  The  Greeks  did  not,  like  the  Jews  and  other 
eastern  nations,  give  to  their  own  history  the  sanctity  of 
a  religion,  and  keep  it  continually  before  their  eyes  and 
ears.  We  must  never  forget  that  the  society  of  Greece 
was  a  society  served  by  slaves,  and  also  that  it  was  de¬ 
veloped  in  city  states  in  which  every  one  was  known  by 
every  one  else,  and  which  might  not  exceed  a  number 
which  could  be  conveniently  addressed  by  a  single  per¬ 
son.  In  its  control  of  personal  freedom  by  public  opinion 
a  Greek  State  resembled  the  Geneva  of  Calvin,  or  the 
Boston  of  the  Puritans,  and  still  more  the  city  republics 
of  Italy  in  the  Middle  Ages.  No  wonder  that  Greek 
learning  spread  so  rapidly  among  men,  who  read  in  it  the 
apotheosis  of  a  society  which  had  so  many  analogies  with 
what  they  saw  around  them.  An  education  such  as  I 
have  described  produced  the  most  gifted  and  attractive 
nation  that  ever  lived  upon  the  earth.  Whether  we  would 
understand  the  course  which  European  culture  has  taken, 
or  the  strongest  influences  which  underlie  the  daily  life  of 


18 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


modern  Europe,  we  must  recur  again  and  again  to  tlie 
head-spring  of  Hellenic  thought. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ROMAN  EDUCATION - ORATORY. 

In  passing  from  Greece  to  Rome  we  find  a  new  ideal  of 
the  perfection  of  man.  Hellenism,  the  most  important 
factor  in  our  modern  civilization,  is  almost  synonymous 
with  our  modern  conception  of  culture.  Rome  has  left 
us  but  one  intellectual  product,  a  system  of  organized  and 
carefully  developed  law  ;  but  Roman  law  was  the  natural 
outcome  of  her  national  life  as  the  ruler  and  civilizer  of 
the  world.  The  object  of  Greek  education  was  to  foster 
to  its  highest  development  the  inner  life  of  man,  to  form 
the  philosopher  who  should  guide  the  man  of  action. 
Roman  education  aimed  at  no  higher  object  than  to 
mould  the  man  of  action  himself,  to  make  a  citizen  fit,  in 
the  language  of  Milton,  to  “  perform  justly,  skilfully,  and 
magnanimously,  all  the  offices,  both  public  and  private,  of 
peace  and  war.  ”  At  a  later  period,  when  Greece  had 
taken  her  conqueror  captive,  when  Cicero  spent  the  leisure 
of  his  retirement  in  writing  philosophical  primers  for  the 
use  of  his  countrymen,  when  a  knowledge  of  Greek  was  a 
necessity  of  good  education,  and  when  Rome  was  filled, 
as  Europe  was  at  a  later  period,  with  hungry  professors  of 
Hellenic  learning,  this  practical  training  took  a  more  in¬ 
tellectual  shape,  and  became  crystallized  into  oratory. 
The  treatises  of  Cicero,  of  Seneca,  of  Quintilian,  on  the 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


10 


education  of  the  orator,  are  disquisitions  on  the  training 
of  the  perfect  man. 

Roman  education  in  its  two  aspects  has  profoundly 
affected  two  of  the  greatest  nations  of  the  modern  world, 
the  English  and  the  French.  The  purest  type  of  the  Eng¬ 
lish  Whig,  fond  of  freedom,  but  fonder  of  his  order,  in¬ 
spired  with  a  traditional  respect  for  learning  and  learned 
men,  educated  at  a  public  school  and  a  university,  writ¬ 
ing  Latin  verses  in  his  leisure  hours,  reflecting  with  sub¬ 
jective  intensity  on  the  bearing  in  success  and  failure 
which  best  becomes  a  public  man,  resembles  no  body  of 
men  so  closely  as  Cicero  and  his  correspondents  ;  while 
France,  so  long  the  home  of  the  imperial  schools  of  rhet¬ 
oric,  when  they  had  perished  elsewhere,  has  steeped 
her  language  in  the  later  Roman  eloquence.  The  Greek 
and  Roman  ideals  are  the  complement  of  each  other.  On 
the  one  side,  man  beautiful,  active,  clever,  receptive, 
emotional  ;  quick  to  feel  and  to  show  his  feeling,  to  argue, 
to  refine  ;  greedy  of  the  pleasures  of  the  world,  if  a  little 
neglectful  of  its  duties  ;  fearing  restraint  as  an  unjust 
stinting  of  the  bounty  of  nature  ;  inquiring  into  every 
secret  ;  strongly  attached  to  the  things  of  this  life,  but 
elevated  by  an  unabated  striving  after  the  highest  ideal  ; 
setting  no  value  but  on  faultless  abstractions,  and  seeing 
reality  only  in  heaven,  on  earth  mere  shadows,  phantoms, 
and  copies  of  the  unseen.  On  the  other  side,  man  prac¬ 
tical,  energetic,  eloquent,  tinged  but  not  imbued  with  phi¬ 
losophy  ;  trained  to  spare  neither  himself  nor  others  ; 
reading  and  thinking  only  with  an  apology  ;  best  engaged 
in  defending  a  political  principle,  in  maintaining  with 
gravity  and  solemnity  the  conservation  of  ancient  free¬ 
dom,  in  leading  armies  through  unexplored  deserts,  estab- 


20 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


lisliing  roads,  fortresses,  settlements,  as  the  results  of 
conquest,  or  in  ordering  and  superintending  the  slow, 
certain,  and  utter  annihilation  of  some  enemy  of  Rome. 
Ifas  the  Christian  world  ever  surpassed  these  types  ?  Can 
we  produce  anything  by  education  in  modern  times  except 
by  combining,  blending,  and  modifying  the  self-culture 
of  the  Greek  and  the  self-sacrifice  of  the  Roman  ? 

One  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  Roman  education 
was  the  influence  of  the  mother.  The  Roman  wife  was  the 
worthy  companion  of  her  husband,  and  she  was  often  the 
best  stimulus  and  example  to  her  sons.  In  early  times, 
before  the  development  of  regular  schools,  children  were 
prepared  for  future  life  by  the  society  of  their  fathers. 
I  hey  sat  with  them  at  table  and  heard,  in  decent  and  re¬ 
spectful  silence,  of  the  services  which  their  elders  had 
rendered  to  the  State  ;  they  accompanied  them  to  the 
senate,  and  learned  how  to  hold  their  tongue  while  others 
were  talking  ;  and  howto  speak  when  the  proper  occasion 
should  arrive.  As  wealth  and  luxury  increased,  the  home 
became  less  secure  as  a  training-place  for  youth.  The 
pcedagogus  was  borrowed  from  Greece,  but  he  was  held  in 
high  honor,  and  though  a  slave,  was  intrusted  with  the 
moral  and  intellectual  education  of  his  charge.  In  the 
school  the  rod  was  freely  used.  The  severity  of  Orbilius 
was  no  exception  to  the  general  rule.  There  was  a  short 
holiday  of  five  days  at  the  Quinquatrian  feast  of  Minerva, 
answering  to  our  Easter,  and  at  the  Saturnalia,  answering 
to  our  Christmas  ;  but  during  the  summer  months  school 
was  altogether  suspended.  The  boys  were  absent  from 
Rome  in  the  unhealthy  season,  or  were  engaged  in  their 
duties  on  the  soil. 

At  the  age  of  seven  the  child  was  committed  to  the 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


21 


grammatistes,  or  literator,  to  learn  the  first  elements  of 
reading  and  writing.  Horace  tells  us  liow  the  lads  went 
through  the  streets  of  Rome  with  their  slate  and  satchel 
on  their  arm,  carrying  the  master’s  fee  carefully  on  the 
middle  day  of  the  eight  months  during  which  they  went 
to  school.  Reading  was  taught  by  the  syllabic  method, 
that  is,  by  explaining  the  power  of  the  letters  in  combi¬ 
nation  before  their  individual  characteristics,  a  method  to 
which  Quintilian  was  opposed.  Writing  was  taught  by 
inscribing  a  copy  on  a  waxen  tablet,  and  allowing  the 
pupil  to  follow  the  furrow  of  the  letters  with  the  stylus. 
Then  followed  the  proper  pronunciation  and  accent  of  the 
words.  Selected  passages  were  learned  by  heart.  By  de¬ 
grees  the  easier  poets  were  read  and  explained,  great  pains 
being  always  taken  with  the  exact  pronunciation.  Next 
to  reading  and  writing  came  reckoning.  The  fingers  were 
made  great  use  of.  Each  joint  and  bend  of  the  finger 
was  made  to  signify  a  certain  value,  and  the  pupil  was 
expected  to  follow  the  twinkling  motion  of  the  teacher’s 
hands  as  he  represented  number  after  number.  The  modern 
Italian  game  of  mora  is  a  survival  of  this  capacity.  The 
abacus  of  stones  for  reckoning  was  also  largely  employed. 

This  preliminary  training  lasted  from  the  seventh  to  the 
twelfth  year.  The  children  were  then  handed  over  to  the 
grammaticus  or  literatus.  The  study  of  Greek  was  now 
added  to  that  of  Latin,  etymology  was  taught,  probably  a 
very  false  one,  and  the  rules  of  syntax  and  composition. 
The  explanation  of  the  poets  was  used  for  the  formation 
of  moral  principle — Livius  Andronicus  in  Latin,  the 
Odyssee  of  Homer  in  Greek.  Vergil,  Cicero,  and  H£sop 
were  studied  in  those  days  as  in  our  own.  Orthography 
and  grammar  were  carefully  inculcated  ;  whole  poems  and 


22 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


orations  were  learned  by  heart.  Nor  was  history  neglected. 
Atticus,  the  friend  of  Cicero,  wTas  so  well  acquainted  with 
Roman  history,  that  he  knew  the  laws,  the  treaties,  and 
the  momentous  events  which  formed  the  fabric  of  his 
country’s  annals.  The  storied  past  filled  him  with  tra¬ 
ditions  of  the  inheritance  of  duty  of  each  noble  stock. 
The  first  steps  were  made  toward  the  practice  of  elo¬ 
quence.  As  the  litera.tor  had  prepared  the  way  for  the 
grammaticus,  so  the  grammaticus  smoothed  the  path  for 
the  rhetor.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  the  young 
Roman  assumed  the  dress  of  manhood.  He  was  no  longer 
treated  as  a  child,  and  kept  in  strict  discipline  with 
stripes.  He  now  chose  his  profession,  either  the  life  of  a 
country  gentleman  devoted  to  the  patriotic  duty  of  agri¬ 
culture,  or  the  army,  or  the  senate,  or  the  forum,  or  that 
complex  of  pursuits  to  which  the  noble  Roman  was  called 
by  virtue  of  his  birth. 

The  training  in  the  first  three  aro  beyond  our  purpose, 
but  forensic  education  held  a  position  of  gradually  in¬ 
creasing  importance,  and  at  last  absorbed  into  itself  the 
whole  of  Roman  instruction.  Rhetoric  was  to  Roman 
education  what  music  was  to  Greek.  Both  terms  are  hard 
for  us  to  understand  now  that  we  have  learned  to  use  them 
with  such  different  meanings.  No  learning  was  valued 
by  the  Romans  unless  it  was  seen  to  have  a  practical 
purpose.  Philosophy  was  regarded  rather  as  a  danger 
than  as  a  help.  Tacitus  says  of  Agricola,  “  retinuit  quod 
est  difficillimum  ex  philosophia  modum.”  “  He  succeed¬ 
ed  in  the  most  difficult  exercise  of  self-command,  he  de¬ 
voted  himself  to  the  study  of  philosophy,  and  yet  rescued 
from  its  influence  the  qualities  of  a  man  of  action.” 
Those  who  labored  for  the  spiritual  development  of  their 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


23 


fellow-countrymen  saw  that  rhetoric  might  be  made  to  in¬ 
clude  almost  every  branch  of  intellectual  activity.  Pre¬ 
sented  under  this  guise  it  might  he  accepted  by  the 
Romans,  when  in  the  simple  nakedness  of  art  or  philoso¬ 
phy  it  was  certain  to  be  refused.  The  first  special  school 
for  Italian  rhetoric  was  opened  by  Lucius  Plotius  Gallus 
in  the  year  90  b.c.  Cicero  and  the  men  of  his  time  gave 
themselves  unending  trouble  to  acquire  the  facility  by 
which  they  gained  their  reputation.  It  is  scarcely  to  be 
wondered  if  censors,  as  the  guardians  of  public  morals, 
showed  some  anxiety  at  the  introduction  and  the  spread 
of  this  new  learnino*. 

The  theoretical  writers  of  this  earlier  stage  of  Roman 
education  were  Cato  the  Censor  and  Cicero,  and  it  will 
be  well  to  give  a  short  account  of  the  opinions  they  have 
left  us  on  the  subject.  Quintilian  tells  us  that  Cato 
(235-149  b.c.)  was  the  first  Roman  writer  on  education. 
His  treatise  is  unfortunately  lost,  but  we  may  infer  its 
contents  from  other  sources.  Cato  was  a  strono-  Con- 
servative.  He  was  the  champion  of  the  u  good  old 
times”  of  Roman  simplicity.  He  valued  the  reputation 
of  a  good  husband  and  father  above  that  of  a  good  sena¬ 
tor.  He  kept  strict  discipline  in  his  house.  His  sons 
were  brought  up  in  the  rude  activity  of  outdoor  life.  At 
the  same  time  he  taught  them  the  great  deeds  of  their 
country  s  history,  and  preserved  with  the  strictest  purity 
the  reverence  which  is  due  to  the  young.  The  foundation 
of  an  orator  must,  he  said,  be  laid  in  character.  lie 
recommended  a  country  life  as  the  parent  of  brave  soldiers 
and  sturdy  citizens.  He  opposed  with  all  his  might  the 
new  Greek  learning,  and  saw  in  it  the  coming  destruction 
of  the  State.  “  Believe  me,”  he  wrote  to  his  son  as  if  a 


24 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOIIIES. 


soothsayer  had  said  it,  “  that  the  Greeks  are  a  good-for- 
nothing  and  unimprovable  race.  If  they  disseminate  their 
literature  among  us  it  will  destroy  everything  ;  but, 
still  worse,  if  they  send  their  doctors  among  us,  for  they 
have  bound  themselves  by  a  solemn  oath  to  kill  the  bar¬ 
barians  and  the  Romans.  ’  ’  He  himself  learned  Greek  late 
in  life,  but  this  did  not  change  his  opinions.  A  homo 
elegans ,  “  a  man  of  culture,  ”  was  his  abhorrence.  Prac¬ 
tical  activity  is  the  whole  duty  of  man.  His  nature  rusts 
like  iron  if  it  is  not  used. 

Very  different  were  the  principles  of  Cicero,  who 
stands,  whatever  we  may  think  of  his  character,  as  the 
first  fruit  of  the  union  of  Greek  and  Roman  thought  and 
learning.  What  he  tells  us  about  education  has  principal 
reference  to  the  education  of  the  orator,  and  there  is  this 
inconvenience  in  his  remarks,  that  we  cannot  tell  when 
he  is  expressing  his  own  opinions  and  when  he  is  merely 
translating  the  commonplaces  of  some  Greek  philosopher. 
The  aim  of  education  is  the  perfection  of  the  individual. 
If  all  citizens  are  developed  to  the  highest  level  of  their 
powers,  how  blessed  will  be  the  State  that  contains  them  ! 
The  teacher  is  to  temper  severity  with  mildness.  He  is 
to  be  equal  in  his  punishment,  and  never  speak  or  strike 
in  anger.  Religion  is  of  the  highest  importance.  The 
gods  are  the  masters  and  directors  of  human  affairs. 
Education  is  to  begin  with  the  earliest  childhood.  We 
must  turn  to  account  the  games  of  children,  and  be  par¬ 
ticularly  careful  of  the  company  by  which  they  are  sur¬ 
rounded.  We  must  take  great  pains  to  develop  their 
memory,  and  for  this  purpose  passages  of  Greek  and 
Roman  writers  are  to  be  learned  by  heart.  We  shall  find 
systems  of  artificial  memory  useful,  in  which  the  sio-ht  is 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


25 


made  to  assist  the  faculty  of  the  brain.  In  choosing  a 
profession  the  young  man  is  to  follow  the  guidance  of  his 
nature  after  he  has  carefully  proved  his  powers  and  capac¬ 
ities.  W"e  must  protect  him  against  the  destructive 
attacks  of  the  passions  j  and  if  he  is  destined  for  public 
life  we  must  feed  his  ambition  and  love  of  distinction. 
The  orator,  whose  education  Cicero  minutely  describes, 
must  not  be  gifted  merely  with  readiness  of  tongue  and 
fluency  of  speech,  nor  with  the  natural  gifts  of  stature, 
presence,  and  melody  of  voice.  We  should  find  in  him 
the  acuteness  of  a  dialectician,  the  thought  of  a  philoso¬ 
pher,  the  expression  of  a  poet,  the  gesticulation  of  a  great 
actor.  Therefore  nothing  is  less  common  than  a  consum¬ 
mate  orator.  Education  can  only  develop  innate  and  nat¬ 
ural  gifts.  Exuberance  in  the  young  is  better  than  pov¬ 
erty.  The  future  orator  must  practise  himself  in  extem¬ 
pore  speaking,  he  must  be  accustomed  to  write  down  the 
thoughts  which  occur  to  him  in  their  first  clearness  and 
precision,  and  afterward  polish  them  with  proper  copious¬ 
ness  and  harmony.  He  will  from  boyhood  have  made 
himself  familiar  with  the  best  models,  so  that  when  he  is 
placed  under  a  master  he  shall  almost  be  fit  to  walk  alone. 
Besides  this  careful  cultivation  of  natural  gifts,  he  must 
acquire  an  amount  of  knowledge  in  many  different  fields. 
He  must  be  at  home  in  jurisprudence,  history,  and  phi¬ 
losophy.  The  contemplation  of  great  models  must  keep 
a  high  standard  ever  before  his  eyes.  How  can  he  be  a 
statesman  if  he  is  ignorant  of  the  history  of  his  country  ! 
But  philosophy  is  the  crown  of  all.  It  is  the  school  of 
virtue.  Cicero  knew  that  he  was  here  recommendimr 
what  few  of  his  readers  had  studied  so  carefully  as  him¬ 
self.  Last  of  all,  the  study  of  Greek  is  of  the  highest  im- 


26 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


portance.  Cicero  took  care  tliat  his  sons  should  practise 
not  only  philosophy  but  eloquence,  under  Greek  mas¬ 
ters.  He  cared  little  for  natural  science,  and  was  su¬ 
premely  ignorant  of  it,  but  he  followed  his  Greek  mas¬ 
ters  in  regarding  politics  as  the  queen  of  sciences,  that  to 
which  all  others  tended.  But  it  was  a  study  for  the  ripe 
and  mature  spirit,  and  not  for  youth.  Cicero  forbore  to 
inculcate  the  Greek  practice  of  gymnastics.  He  wTas  not 
ignorant  of  their  darker  side  as  the  fosterers  of  immoral¬ 
ity.  Such  was  the  ideal  which  Cicero  placed  before  him¬ 
self  ;  a  compromise,  as  we  might  have  expected,  between 
old  and  new — the  Roman  training  mellowed  and  illumined 
by  the  higher  knowledge  of  which  he  had  himself  tasted. 

Let  us  now  see  how  this  fusion  of  two  ideals  reached 
the  perfection  of  system  in  the  teaching  of  Quintilian. 
Roman  education  became  fully  organized  with  the  cen¬ 
tralization  of  the  empire.  Like  the  government,  of  which 
it  formed  a  part,  it  reached  its  highest  excellence  under 
Trajan,  Hadrian,  and  the  Antonines.  Nerva  ordered  the 
children  of  poor  parents  to  be  educated  throughout  Italy 
without  expense,  and  Antoninus  Pius  erected  in  honor  of 
his  wife  Faustina  an  educational  institute  for  poor  girls. 
The  education  given  by  the  literati  began  to  mould  itself 
into  the  seven  liberal  arts,  which  lasted  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages,  as  the  subject  of  education — the  trivium 
and  quadrivium,  grammar,  dialectic,  rhetoric,  geometry, 
arithmetic,  astronomy,  and  music.  In  the  work  of  Quin¬ 
tilian  on  the  education  of  an  orator,  we  have  a  full  ac¬ 
count  of  Roman  education  at  this  period.  Quintilian  was 
born  42  a.d.,  at  Calahorra  in  Spain.  He  came  to  Rome 
at  an  early  age,  and  was  educated  to  be  a  consummate 
speaker.  He  afterward  exchanged  the  practice  for  the 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


27 


teaching  of  Ills  profession,  and  for  twenty  years  educated 
the  most  distinguished  Romans  in  his  art.  He  received 
from  the  Emperor  the  broad  purple  stripe  of  senatorial 
dignity,  and  was  raised  to  consular  rank.  He  was  the 
first  teacher  who  was  paid  by  the  State,  and  had  the  title 
of  Professor  of  Eloquence.  His  treatise  was  written  after 
his  retirement  from  active  life.  Although  it  professes  to 
treat  merely  of  the  education  of  the  orator,  yet  it  deals 
incidentally  with  most  of  the  questions  which  refer  to  the 
education  of  the  perfect  man. 

Quintilian  begins  by  a  plea  for  the  teachableness  of 
youth  m  general.  Activity  of  mind,  he  says,  is  natural 
in  man,  and  if  the  fair  promise  of  youth  is  often  not  ful¬ 
filled,  it  must  be  attributed  rather  to  defective  education 
than  to  want  of  natural  power.  We  must  be  full  of  hope 
for  the  future  of  every  child,  and  our  care  must  begin  at 
the  very  earliest  age.  So  we  must  be  careful  as  to  the 
nurses  we  provide  for  our  children.  Their  words  are 
doubtless  important,  but  so  is  their  pronunciation.  By 
the  defective  instruction  of  a  provincial  nurse,  faults  may 
be  acquired  in  early  childhood  which  can  never  be  eradi¬ 
cated.  Also  the  foster  children  among  whom  your  son  is 
to  be  educated  must  have  the  same  qualities.  It  is  well  if 
you  can  get  for  your  son  a  pcedagogus  who  is  a  man  of 
learning,  but  if  this  is  impossible,  let  him  at  least  know 
that  he  is  ignorant,  and  not  be  puffed  up  with  the  pre¬ 
tence  of  knowledge  which  he  does  not  possess.  It  is  the 
duty  of  the  pcedagogus  to  correct  the  faults  of  the  nurse. 
Greek  should  be  taught  before  Latin — one  is  a  subject  of 
teaching,  the  other  of  insensible  acquisition.  But  Latin 
must  follow  at  a  short  interval  or  else  foreign  pronuncia¬ 
tion  and  foreign  idioms  will  mar  the  purity  of  the  mother 


28 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


tongue.  There  is  no  reason  for  deferring  instruction  for 
the  first  seven  years  of  life.  The  memory  is  most  tena¬ 
cious  in  early  childhood,  and  it  is  unreasonable  not  to  make 
use  of  it  while  we  have  it.  But  this  must  be  done  with 
tenderness  and  sympathy.  Learning  must  be  a  pleasure  and 
not  a  burden.  If  the  child  is  not  disposed  for  one  kind  of 
study,  try  him  with  another.  A  teacher  of  the  highest 
genius  is  not  wanted  in  teaching  the  rudiments  to  a  child. 
Let  us  begin  with  reading.  First  teach  the  forms  of  the 
separate  letters  so  that  the  child  may  know  them  when  he 
sees  them.  This  is  preferable  to  beginning  with  the  order 
of  the  alphabet,  or  with  syllabic  sounds.  Ivory  letters 
will  be  found  useful  helps.  Writing  is  best  taught  by 
cutting  the  letters  on  a  board,  and  letting  the  child  draw 
his  stylus  along  the  grooves.  This  is  preferable  to  wax, 
or  to  having  his  hand  directed  by  another  person.  To 
write  well  is  a  most  useful  and  important  accomplishment. 
All  combinations  of  letters,  even  the  most  difficult,  must 
be  learned  systematically  at  first,  and  not  be  left  to  puzzle 
us  when  they  occur.  Good  reading  is  taught  by  beginning 
slowly  and  quickening  by  degrees.  In  all  this  Quintilian 
shows  himself  in  favor  of  a  carefully  graduated  method, 
and  discards  the  plunging  “in  rnedias  res,”  which  has 
been  inculcated  by  modern  educationalists. 

By  the  seventh  year  a  child  may  have  learned  to  read 
and  write  with  ease,  may  be  stored  with  a  copious  supply 
of  sayings  of  great  men  and  select  passages  which  he  will 
never  forget,  and  will,  above  all,  have  acquired  a  correct 
and  clear  pronunciation — distinct  and  harmonious — and 
fit  to  cope  with  any  difficulty  of  expression.  What  is  to 
be  done  with  the  child  thus  educated  ?  Are  we  to  send 
him  to  a  public  school  or  to  keep  him  at  home  ?  This 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


29 


question  was  as  pressing  and  as  difficult  in  Quintilian’s 
day  as  in  our  own.  Quintilian  speaks  decidedly  for  the 
first  alternative.  The  morals  of  public  schools  are  un¬ 
doubtedly  corrupt,  but  so  may  be  the  morals  of  the  home. 
In  both  cases  much  will  depend  on  good  disposition  and 
careful  home-training.  Quintilian  complains  that  in  the 
corrupt  homes  of  imperial  Rome  children  learn  vices  be¬ 
fore  they  know  that  they  are  vices  ;  effeminate  and  luxu¬ 
rious,  they  do  not  imbibe  criminality  from  schools,  but 
carry  it  themselves  into  schools.  Again,  it  is  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  the  pupil  will  derive  more  care  and  atten¬ 
tion  from  a  single  teacher.  The  best  teachers  will  nat¬ 
urally  be  found  in  large  schools,  and  there  are  many  sub¬ 
jects  which  one  man  can  teach  as  well  to  a  large  class  as 
to  a  small  one.  Take  pains,  of  course,  to  choose  your 
school  carefully  ;  expect  the  master  to  give  individual  at¬ 
tention  to  his  pupils,  but  do  not,  because  some  schools 
are  bad,  therefore  reject  schools  altogether. 

Public  education  is,  above  everything,  necessary  for  the 
orator,  who  must  move  in  the  greatest  publicity  and  in 
the  full  daylight  of  public  affairs  ;  he  must  accustom  him¬ 
self  from  his  boyhood  not  to  be  abashed  at  the  sight  of 
man,  nor  to  live  in  a  solitary  and  recluse  state  of  life. 
“  The  mind  requires  to  be  continually  excited  and  roused, 
while  in  such  retirement  it  either  languishes  and  contracts 
rust,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  becomes  swollen  with  empty 
conceit,  since  he  who  compares  himself  to  no  one  else 
will  necessarily  attribute  much  to  his  own  powers.  Be¬ 
sides,  when  his  acquirements  are  to  be  displayed  in  pub¬ 
lic,  he  is  blinded  at  the  sight  of  the  sun,  and  stumbles  at 
every  new  object,  because  he  has  learned  in  solitude  that 
which  is  to  be  done  in  public.  I  say  nothing  of  friend- 


30 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


ships  formed  at  school,  which  remain  in  full  force  even 
to  old  age,  as  if  cemented  by  a  certain  religious  obligation, 
for  to  have  been  instructed  in  the  same  studies  is  a  not 
less  sacred  bond  than  to  have  been  instructed  in  the  same 
sacred  rites.  Where  shall  a  young  man  learn  the  sense,  too, 
which  is  called  common  sense,  when  he  has  separated  him¬ 
self  from  society  ?  Besides,  at  home  he  can  learn  only  what 
is  taught  himself  ;  at  school  even  what  is  taught  others. 
He  will  every  day  hear  many  things  commended,  many 
things  corrected  ;  the  idleness  of  a  fellow-student  when 
reproved  will  be  a  warning  to  him,  the  industry  of  one 
commended  will  be  a  stimulus,  emulation  will  be  excited 
by  praise,  and  he  will  think  it  a  disgrace  to  yield  to  his 
equals  in  age,  and  an  honor  to  surpass  his  seniors.  All 
these  things  excite  the  mind,  and  though  ambition  itself 
be  a  vice,  yet  it  is  often  the  parent  of  virtues.  ”  Quin¬ 
tilian  adds  that  masters  themselves,  when  they  have  but 
one  pupil  at  a  time  with  them,  cannot  feel  the  same  en¬ 
ergy  and  spirit  in  addressing  him  as  when  they  are  excited 
by  a  large  number  of  hearers.  There  would  be  no  elo¬ 
quence  in  the  world  if  we  were  to  speak  only  with  one 
person  at  a  time. 

The  first  duty  of  a  teacher  is  to  ascertain  the  dis¬ 
position  and  ability  of  his  pupil,  and  the  chief  signs  of 
this  ability  are  found  to  consist  in  memory  and  in  imita¬ 
tion.  In  this  we  must  be  on  our  guard  against  that  ready 
and  superficial  quickness  which  is  often  mistaken  for 
power.  Each  pupil  requires  that  special  kind  of  stimulus 
which  is  best  suited  to  his  disposition.  Work  should 
alternate  with  play.  Corporal  punishment  should  in  no 
case  be  allowed,  and  this  for  three  reasons.  I .  It  is  ser¬ 
vile  and  degrading  in  its  nature.  2.  After  a  time  even 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


31 


this  loses  its  effect.  3.  If  the  master  does  his  duty  in 
exerting  steady  work,  there  will  be  no  occasion  for  it.  It 
is,  indeed,  the  weapon  of  bad  teachers,  and  no  man 
should  be  allowed  too  much  authority  over  an  age  so 
weak,  and  so  unable  to  resist  ill-treatment.  Next  comes 
the  special  duty  of  the  gmmmaticus.  This  will  be  mainly 
to  teach  the  art  of  speaking  correctly,  and  the  illustration 
of  the  poets.  It  will  include  the  art  of  writing  and  the 
practice  of  the  critical  judgment.  He  should  also  teach 
music  as  far  as  it  is  concerned  with  metre  and  rhythm, 
astronomy  to  understand  the  allusions  of  the  poets,  and 
philosophy  for  the  same  reason.  Although  the  school¬ 
master  is  necessarily  concerned  with  the  foundations, 
unless  these  are  well  and  securely  laid,  the  edifice  built 
upon  them  will  be  tottering  and  unsafe.  We  need  not  be 
afraid  of  employing  the  minds  of  children  on  too  many 
topics — diversity  of  employment  is  in  itself  a  relaxation, 
and  no  age  is  so  well  able  as  this  to  stand  the  strain  of 
complexity  of  studies. 

We  now  pass  to  the  duties  of  the  rhetorician.  Boys 
are  often  sent  to  them  at  too  late  an  age.  The  school¬ 
master  has  trenched  upon  his  functions.  We  can  lay 
down  no  certain  rule,  but  the  pupil  should — to  use  a  mod¬ 
ern  phrase — leave  school  as  soon  as  he  is  fit  for  the  uni¬ 
versity.  In  choosing  a  teacher  let  us  pay  especial  regard 
to  his  moral  character.  Let  him  be  a  parent  to  his 
pupils  ;  let  him  have  an  equable  temper,  neither  too  affable 
nor  too  austere.  Let  him  deserve,  by  his  constant  and 
unconscious  influence,  the  love  and  reverence  of  his 
pupils.  Above  all,  choose  a  teacher  of  eminence  from 
the  very  first — the  ablest  teachers  can  if  they  will  teach 
little  things  best.  Besides,  in  the  classes  of  the  best 


32 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


teachers  yon  will  find  the  most  desirable  fellow-students 
for  your  son.  The  rhetorician  will  begin  by  going  over 
again  some  of  the  work  of  the  grammaticus.  He  will 
prefer  exuberance  to  sterility.  Nothing  is  worse  than  a 
dry  master  ;  it  is  very  easy  for  the  power  of  boys  to  sink 
under  too  great  severity  of  correction.  Nothing  cheers 
study  so  much  as  hope.  The  master  should  give  his  own 
composition  as  a  model  to  his  pupils,  and  encourage  them 
to  imitate  it.  You  must  make  allowance  for  each  pupil’s 
age  and  ability.  “  I  used  to  say,”  Quintilian  tells  us, 
with  regard  to  some  compositions,  ‘  ‘  that  I  was  satisfied 
with  them  for  the  present,  but  that  a  time  would  come 
when  I  should  not  allow  them  to  produce  compositions  of 
such  a  character.  It  is  quite  true  that  a  good  teacher 
will  suit  the  education  of  his  pupils  to  their  several  capac¬ 
ities,  just  as  a  trainer  in  the  palaestra  will  make  one  of  his 
pupils  a  runner,  another  a  boxer  or  wrestler.  But  this 
must  not  be  carried  too  far.  Sometimes  this  natural  dis¬ 
position  is  a  fault  which  must  be  restrained,  and  must  be 
met  by  contrary  treatment.  Still  we  must  not  fight  against 
nature.  We  must  not  take  away  any  inborn  good  qual¬ 
ity,  we  must  only  strengthen  what  is  weak  and  supply 
what  is  deficient.  If  such  is  the  duty  of  teachers,  what 
is  that  of  the  learners  ?  They  must  love  their  tutors  not 
less  than  their  studies,  and  regard  them  as  the  parents, 
not  indeed  of  their  bodies,  but  of  their  minds. 

It  is  no  part  of  our  plan  to  follow  minutely  the  rest  of 
Quintilian’s  work,  which  is  devoted  to  the  training  of  the 
lawyer  and  the  statesman  in  the  smallest  details.  But  a 
short  sketch  of  its  scope  and  of  what  it  aims  to  effect  will 
give  an  idea  of  the  elaborate  pains  with  which  the  educa¬ 
tion  of  a  Roman  was  conducted.  The  passages  I  have 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


33 


quoted  are  to  be  found  in  the  first  of  his  twelve  books, 
and  in  the  first  half  of  the  second.  The  third  book  con¬ 
tains  a  full  classification  of  the  different  kinds  of  oratory. 
In  the  fourth,  after  a  preface,  in  which  he  expresses  his 
gratitude  for  being  selected  as  the  teacher  of  the  great- 
nephews  of  the  Emperor  Domitian,  he  treats  of  the  differ¬ 
ent  divisions  of  a  speech,  the  purpose  of  the  exordium, 
the  proper  form  of  a  statement  of  facts,  what  constitutes 
the  force  of  proofs,  either  in  confirming  our  own  asser¬ 
tions  or  refuting  those  of  our  adversary,  and  of  the  differ¬ 
ent  powers  of  the  peroration,  whether  it  be  regarded  as  a 
summary  of  the  arguments  previously  used,  or  as  a  means 
of  exciting  the  feelings  of  the  judge  rather  than  of  re¬ 
freshing  his  memory.  This  brings  us  to  the  end  of  the 
sixth  book,  which  closes  with  remarks  on  “the  uses  of 
humor  and  of  altercation.  The  seventh  book  is  extremely 
technical.  It  deals  with  what  Quintilian  calls  arrange¬ 
ment — the  second  part  of  oratory,  as  invention  is  the 
first.  It  is  really  a  treatise  on  the  logic  of  argument. 
The  eighth  and  ninth  books  are  given  to  style.  This  sub¬ 
ject  is  treated  with  an  exhaustiveness  which  has  no  parallel 
in  modern  education,  excepting  perhaps  in  France,  which, 
as  we  said  before,  is  of  all  countries  in  Europe  the  most 
faithful  guardian  of  Roman  principles  of  education.  In 
the  tenth  book,  the  most  popular  and  best  known  of  all, 
Quintilian,  in  giving  advice  for  an  orator’s  reading,  takes 
occasion  to  pass  in  review  the  great  Greek  and  Roman 
writers,  and  to  criticise  them  in  turn.  Many  of  those 
whom  he  mentions  are  lost  to  us  forever  ;  it  is  some  con¬ 
solation  to  think  that  the  best,  as  a  rule,  still  survive. 
The  book  concludes  with  miscellaneous  remarks  on  imita¬ 
tion,  on  writing,  on  correcting  what  we  have  written,  on 


34 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


the  different  kinds  of  composition,  and  on  the  power  of 
speaking  extempore.  The  eleventh  book  treats  first  of 
what  is  becoming  in  an  orator,  and  of  the  different  kinds 
of  oratory  which  suit  different  audiences  ;  next  of  the 
memory  and  of  the  means  of  cultivating  it  ;  and,  lastly, 
of  delivery,  the  management  of  the  voice,  gesture,  and 
countenance.  The  last  book  attempts  to  connect  the  some¬ 
what  limited  and  special  subject  of  oratorical  education 
with  the  general  interests  of  humanity.  A  great  orator 
must  be  a  good  man.  For  this  he  must  study  philosophy 
and  its  three  great  branches — dialectic  or  logic,  ethics, 
and  physics. 

Lastly,  the  experienced  teacher  gives  advice  when  the 
public  life  of  an  orator  should  begin,  and  when  it  should 
end.  Even  then  his  activity  will  not  come  to  an  end.  He 
will  write  the  history  of  his  times,  will  explain  the  law  to 
those  who  consult  him,  will  write,  like  Quintilian  himself, 
a  treatise  on  eloquence,  or  set  forth  the  highest  principles 
of  morality.  The  young  men  will  throng  round  and  con¬ 
sult  him  as  an  oracle,  and  he  will  guide  them  as  a  pilot. 
What  can  be  more  honorable  to  a  man  than  to  teach  that 
of  which  he  has  a  thorough  knowledge  ?  I  know  not,” 
he  concludes,  u  whether  an  orator  ought  not  to  be 
thought  happiest  at  that  period  of  his  life  when,  seques¬ 
tered  from  the  world,  devoted  to  retired  study,  unmo¬ 
lested  by  envy,  and  remote  from  strife,  he  has  placed  his 
reputation  in  a  harbor  of  safety,  experiencing  while  yet 
alive  that  respect  which  is  more  commonly  offered  after 
death,  and  observing  how  his  character  will  be  regarded 
by  posterity.  ’  ’ 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


35 


CHAPTER  III. 

HUMANISTIC  EDUCATION. 

^  e  have  described  the  two  principal  educational  sys¬ 
tems  of  the  Pagan  world.  Whatever  effects  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  Christianity  wrought,  it  was  only  to  be  expect¬ 
ed  that  it  should  bring  about  a  great  change  in  the  charac¬ 
ter  of  education.  It  recognized  no  difference  between 
slave  and  free,  it  gave  women  an  honorable  position  by 
the  side  of  men,  it  considered  the  individual  not  as  exist¬ 
ing  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  State,  but  laid  stress  on 
the  personal  relations  between  God  and  each  of  Ilis  creat¬ 
ures.  It  did  not  regard  education  as  mainly  of  political 
importance,  but  estimated  it  by  its  bearing  on  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  spiritual  life.  It  was  natural  that  the  Chris¬ 
tian  education  should  take  at  first  an  ecclesiastical  charac¬ 
ter.  The  first  pressing  need  was  to  provide  ministrants 
of  all  grades  for  the  service  of  the  Church,  and  it  was  only 
as  a  favor  that  laymen  were  gradually  allowed  to  partake 
of  this  instruction.  Hut  even  in  the  age  of  the  Fathers 
we  find  that  the  curriculum  was  not  confined  within  these 
narrow  limits.  The  Greeks  were  more  liberal  in  their 
views  than  the  Latins.  The  great  Origen  at  Alexandria 
added  philosophy,  geometry,  grammar,  and  rhetoric  to 
the  ecclesiastical  course,  and  read  with  his  pupils  the 
Greek  philosophers  and  poets.  He  used  the  method  of 
dialectic,  and  taught  his  pupils  by  questions  and  answers, 
and  encouraged  them  to  pursue  inquiry  on  their  own  ac¬ 
count.  But  the  crown  and  completion  of  the  edifice  lay 


36 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


in  the  interpretation  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  in  the  ex¬ 
planation  of  the  subtlest  truths  of  Christianity.  This  in¬ 
terpretation  was  no  mere  analysis  of  the  dead  letter,  but 
an  attempt  to  penetrate  into  the  living  spirit.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Latin  fathers  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  Jerome, 
and  Augustine  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  heathen 
writings.  A  new  education,  they  said,  must  be  formed 
of  a  purely  Christian  character  to  supply  Christian  wants. 
To  the  age  of  the  Fathers  succeeded  the  age  of  the  School¬ 
men,  and  to  the  period  in  which  they  flourished  the  edu¬ 
cation  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  the  main  belongs.  We  can¬ 
not  give  one  uniform  account  of  it  as  a  whole.  The  edu¬ 
cation  of  the  monastery  was  strongly  contrasted  with  that 
of  the  castle,  and  these  were  again  distinct  from  the  edu¬ 
cation  of  the  towns.  These  three  streams  continued  to 
run  parallel  to  each  other  until  their  course  was  profoundly 
modified  by  the  combined  effects  of  the  Renaissance  and 
the  Reformation.  It  was  part  of  the  design  of  Charles 
the  Grieat  to  establish  throughout  his  empire  a  system  of 
lay  and  ecclesiastical  schools,  which  should  supply  the 
place  of  that  magnificent  system  of  public  schools  which 
had  grown  up  under  the  Roman  empire.  He  spared  no 
trouble  in  obtaining  the  best  assistance  ;  the  palace  school 
was  to  be  a  model  and  an  example  to  the  rest.  But  he 
took  education  as  he  found  it,  and  his  work  had  no  great 
influence  on  the  development  of  educational  theory. 
Very  different  was  it  with  the  monks.  The  great  schools 
of  Fulda,  of  Reichenau,  of  Corbey,  of  Hildesheim,  of  St. 
Gall,  all  monasteries  of  the  Benedictine  rule,  were  not 
only  centres  of  enlightenment  to  the  ages  in  which  they 
flourished,  but  they  presented  to  the  world  a  model  of 
Christian  education  which  it  has  never  entirely  deserted. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


37 


Not  a  man  in  Europe  now,”  as  Dr.  Newman  says, 
“  wil0  talks  bravely  against  the  Church,  but  owes  it  to  the 
Church  that  he  can  talk  at  all.”  The  Benedictines  were, 
in  education,  the  Jesuits  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  they 
taught  with  more  simplicity  and  faithfulness,  and  not  with 
ulterior  designs  of  power  and  influence.  Their  great  mon¬ 
asteries  were  at  once  fortresses  against  crime,  refuges  for 
the  oppressed,  centres  of  instruction  for  the  people,  the 
free  home  of  the  sciences,  archives  of  literature,  schools 
for  the  young,  universities  for  the  learned,  chanceries  for 
kings,  seminaries  for  priests,  schools  of  agriculture,  of 
manufacture,  of  music,  architecture,  and  painting.  Nor 
was  the  education  of  girls  neglected.  The  nuns  of  St. 
Clare  were  as  active  in  teaching  as  their  brother 
monks. 

The  school  was  organized  with  great  care,  and  the  cur¬ 
riculum  was  not  nearly  as  narrow  as  we  might  have  ex¬ 
pected.  The  highest  dignitary  was  the  scholasticus,  or 
provost,  called  in  Italian  magniscola.  He  was  highly  paid 
and  much  honored,  and  exercised  a  general  superintend¬ 
ence  over  the  whole  institution.  Under  him  was  the  rec¬ 
tor  or  head  master,  appointed  and  paid  by  the  scholasti¬ 
cus.  He  might  be  a  layman  or  be  married.  As  the 
scholasticus  withdrew  more  and  more  from  teaching,  the 
care  of  the  higher  education  came  gradually  into  the  rec¬ 
tor’s  hands.  Another  important  officer  was  the  cantor ,  or 
singing  master,  who  had  also  charge  of  the  elaborate 
church  calendar.  The  immediate  care  of  the  pupils  was 
committed  both  in  and  out  of  school  to  circatores ,  who 
answer  to  the  French  maitres  d'  etudes,  a  class  happily  un¬ 
known  in  England.  The  subjects  of  education  were  the 
so-called  seven  liberal  arts  :  Grammar,  dialectic,  rhetoric, 


38 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


music,  arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy.  The  use  of 
these  was  expressed  in  the  following  verses. 

Gramm  loquitur,  Dia  vera  docet,  Bhe  verba  colorat, 

Mus  canit,  Ar  numerat,  Geo  ponderat,  colit  astra. 

The  three  first  formed  the  trivium,  the  four  last  the  quad - 
rivium — the  whole  making  a  course  of  seven  years.  The 
study  of  religion,  although  not  expressly  mentioned,  was 
regarded  as  the  object  and  the  completion  of  the  whole 
system. 

Grammar,  principally  Latin,  although  Greek  and  He¬ 
brew  were  also  taught  to  some  extent,  was  imparted  out 
of  the  works  of  Priscian,  Diomedes,  and  Donatus.  It 
went  as  far  as  the  explanation  of  some  of  the  best  known 
writers,  and  the  learning  of  prosody,  etymology,  and  cor¬ 
rectness  of  expression.  This  was  the  germ  from  which 
the  later  humanistic  education  was  developed.  The  schol¬ 
ars  of  the  Reformation  elaborated  and  perfected  this  first 
of  the  liberal  studies,  but  there  they  stopped,  and  even  in 
these  days  we  hesitate  to  go  beyond  them.  Charles  the 
Great  did  his  best  to  develop  the  study  of  his  native  Ger¬ 
man.  Dialectic  was  in  theory  synonymous  with  logic,  but 
in  the  schools  of  the  Middle  Ages  it  went  little  beyond  a 
collection  of  barren  terminologies,  borrowed  from  Aris¬ 
totle  after  passing  through  a  number  of  incongruous 
media.  When  the  application  of  philosophy  to  theology „ 
was  perfected  by  the  schoolmen,  this  branch  encroached 
largely  on  the  field  of  education,  and  so  discredited  that 
study  that  it  found  no  place  in  the  new  learning.  Rheto¬ 
ric  was  taught  out  of  Quintilian  and  Cicero  ;  sometimes 
from  their  original  works,  sometimes  through  the  medium 
of  Capella,  Bede,  or  Alcuin.  Music,  as  might  be  expect- 


.  EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


30 


ed,  occupied  a  large  space.  With  it  were  connected  other 
arts  of  taste — the  beautiful  writing  of  manuscripts,  archi¬ 
tecture,  and  illumination.  Arithmetic  was  too  much 
taken  up  with  the  secret  properties  of  numbers  ;  Geom¬ 
etry  was  taught  entirely  out  of  Euclid,  and  was  connect¬ 
ed  with  elementary  notions  of  geography.  Astronomy, 
in  some  respects  hardly  distinguishable  from  astrology, 
was  the  only  branch  of  natural  science  which  received  at¬ 
tention.  Even  here  the  connection  of  education  with  the 
Church  was  not  forgotten.  Twenty -four  doggerel  Latin 
verses  taught  the  sequence  of  the  festivals  of  the  Church  ; 
they  were  called  Cisio- Janus  from  the  two  words  with 
which  they  commence.  These  two  lines  have  reference 
to  January. 

Cisio- Jan  as,  Epi  sibi  vindicat  Oc  Feli  Mar  An 

Prisca.  Fab.  Ag.  Yincenti.  Pau.  Pol.  Car.  nobile  lumen. 

The  days  of  the  month  are  denoted  by  the  order  in  which 
the  syllables  occur.  Cisio  is  the  circumcision  of  Christ. 
Epi,  the  sixth  syllable,  is  the  Epiphany  on  the  6th  of 
January.  Pau,  the  twenty-fifth  syllable,  is  the  conversion 
of  St.  Paul  on  the  25th  of  January. 

The  discipline  in  these  schools  was  very  harsh  and 
rough,  and  the  rod  was  the  only  means  of  persuasion. 
The  flogging  which  still  disgraces  some  of  our  public 
schools  is  an  inheritance  from  the  monks  and  friars. 
This  harsh  treatment  brought  with  it  its  natural  results  : 
the  pupils  grew  up  unruly  and  ill-behaved.  We  hear  of 
schoolboys  murdering  each  other,  and  of  a  cloister  being 
burned  down  in  revenge  for  a  flogging.  In  these  religious 
schools  grew  up  the  practice  of  acting  plays  and  mysteries 
by  way  of  relaxation,  which  has  continued  in  Catholic  and 


40 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


Protestant  schools  to  our  own  day.  We  have  before 
mentioned  the  name  of  Charles  the  Great.  The  wish  of 
the  emperor  was  to  establish  throughout  his  vast  empire, 
which  extended  from  the  Eider  to  the  Garigliano,  from 
the  Raab  to  the  Ebro,  a  culture,  national,  that  is  German 
in  tone,  based  upon  the  foundations  of  the  Church.  He 
desired  the  clergy  first  to  be  well  educated  themselves, 
and  then  to  become  centres  of  enlightenment  to  the  sur¬ 
rounding  laity.  He  himself  set  the  example  of  industry 
and  application  to  learning,  and  the  cause  of  education 
suffered  severely  by  his  death.  The  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries  were  times  of  greater  ignorance  and  barbarism 
than  the  ninth.  The  two  following  centuries  were  occu¬ 
pied  by  the  activity  of  the  schoolmen.  The  human  mind 
revolted  from  the  fetters  in  which  the  clergy  had  at¬ 
tempted  to  confine  it.  A  real  interest  in  philosophy  was 
awakened  ;  an  attempt  was  made  to  reconcile  the  teaching 
of  Aristotle  with  that  of  St.  Paul,  to  harmonize  reason  and 
revelation.  The  principal  effect  which  the  schoolmen 
had  on  education  was  to  determine  the  form  in  which  in¬ 
struction  should  be  given.  They  had,  at  the  same  time, 
a  considerable  indirect  influence  in  stimulating  the  intel¬ 
lect  to  speculation,  in  rousing  a  dissatisfaction  with  dog¬ 
mas  which  were  incapable  of  proof,  and  in  preparing  the 
way  for  the  Reformation. 

The  age  of  the  schoolmen  was  also  the  age  of  chivalry. 
Side  by  side  with  the  education  of  the  cloister  and  the 
cathedral  was  the  education  of  the  castle.  Here  the  young 
knight  learned  a  good  deal  that  he  learns  at  the  present  day 
in  our  public  schools.  The  trivium  and  quadrivium  were 
understood  to  be  intended  only  for  clerics  and  men  of 
learning  ;  the  knightly  curriculum,  the  seven  free  arts,  as 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOKIES. 


41 


they  were  called,  were  to  ride,  to  swim,  to  shoot  with  bow 
and  arrow,  to  box,  to  hawk,  to  play  chess,  and  to  write 
poetry.  In  the  cloister  the  body  was  mortified,  in  the 
castle  it  was  exalted  ;  in  the  cloister  the  pupils  might  not 
so  much  as  look  at  a  woman’s  face,  in  the  castle  devotion 
to  women  was  made  the  mainspring  of  conduct,  the  ob¬ 
ject  and  the  reward  of  all  higher  effort  ;  in  the  cloister 
the  poetry  chiefly  valued  consisted  of  verses  in  monkish 
Latin,  in  the  castle  the  young  knight  learned  all  the 
mysteries  of  Provencal  verse,  and  could  describe  the 
perfection  of  his  mistress  in  the  ballad,  or  the  canzone,  or 
the  sonnet,  and  accompany  his  poetry  with  the  lute.  In 
the  three  grades  of  this  education,  the  pupil  was  succes¬ 
sively  page,  squire,  and  knight,  the  first  beginning  with 
the  seventh,  the  second  with  the  fourteenth  year.  Care¬ 
ful  rules  were  laid  down  for  each  period,  and  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that,  under  favorable  circumstances,  the 
education  was  very  well  suited  to  its  purpose.  The  town 
schools  as  regards  education  were  inferior  to  those  we 
have  mentioned,  but  they  maintained  a  lay  character  in 
the  midst  of  encroaching  ecclesiasticism,  they  paid  especial 
attention  to  the  study  of  vernacular  tongues,  and  they 
taught  subjects  such  as  history  and  geography  better  than 
they  could  be  learned  either  in  the  cloister  or  the  castle. 

It  would  be  impossible,  in  a  review  of  the  education  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  to  pass  over  the  Brethren  of  the  Com¬ 
mon  Life  who  lived  and  taught  in  the  northern  Nether¬ 
lands  on  the  banks  of  the  Yssel.  In  the  latter  half  of  the 
fourteenth  century  and  during  the  whole  of  the  fifteenth 
they  inspired  the  lower  classes  of  their  countrymen  with 
the  same  love  of  classical  study  and  literary  excellence 
which  in  Italy  was  confined  only  to  a  favored  few.  Ger- 
4 


42 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


hard  Groote,  their  founder  (1340-1.384),  studied  the 
scholastic  philosophy  at  Paris,  but  returned  to  establish  at 
Deventer  a  community  of  ascetic  life  and  brotherly  striv¬ 
ing  after  a  divine  ideal.  He  only  lived  long  enough  to 
see  the  commencement  of  his  work.  This  community 
was  given  to  all  good  works,  but  especially  to  the  teaching 
of  the  young.  The  Pible  was  the  foundation  on  which 
they  built  ;  but,  besides  this,  they  did  not  neglect  the 
study  of  Ovid,  Yergil,  Horace,  and  Terence,  of  Plutarch, 
Sallust,  Thucydides,  and  Herodotus.  Nor  were  they  en¬ 
tirely  ignorant  of  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Cicero.  From 
Deventer  as  a  centre  their  schools  spread  first  over  Hol¬ 
land,  then  into  Belgium,  Germany,  and  France.  The 
school  at  Ilerzogenbusch  had  1200  scholars,  that  of  Zwolle 
1000.  The  spirit  of  this  saintly  brotherhood  still  speaks 
to  us  in  the  “  Imitation  of  Christ,”  probably  written  by 
Thomas  of  Kempen,  who  breathed  into  his  book  the 
essence  of  their  simplicity  and  self-denial.  They  im¬ 
proved  the  teaching  of  Latin  both  in  method  and  correct¬ 
ness,  and  published  an  encyclopaedia  of  geography  and 
history  containing  everything  which  it  was  necessary  for 
a  student  to  know.  During  the  fifteenth  century  they 
were  indisputably  at  the  head  of  education  in  the  north  of 
Europe.  Their  end  is  very  pathetic.  The  spread  of  the 
art  of  printing  took  away  their  chief  source  of  income, 
that  of  copying  books  ;  as  they  had  supplanted  the  learn¬ 
ing  of  the  monks  by  a  better  teaching,  so  they  were  not 
able  to  stand  against  the  reviving  light  of  humanism. 
The  “  Epistolm  Obscurorum  Virorum,”  the  wittiest  squib 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  which  did  much  to  secure  the  vic¬ 
tory  of  the  new  learning,  are  written  in  the  name  of  the 
brothers  of  Deventer.  But  before  they  perished  they 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


43 


had  given  to  the  world  their  most  distinguished  scholar, 
Desidcrius  Erasmus,  who,  living  in  an  age  of  transition 
and  sympathizing  with  that  which  was  departing  and  with 
that  which  had  not  yet  come,  linked  together,  as  no  one 
else  could  have  done,  the  new  learning  with  the  old.  We 
stand  now  at  the  threshold  of  the  Renaissance. 

The  study  of  the  humanities,  that  is,  of  the  Greek  clas¬ 
sics  in  the  original,  is  best  fixed  by  the  date  of  the  con¬ 
quest  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks  in  1453.  The 
breaking  up  of  the  Greek  empire  scattered  a  number  of 
Greek  scholars  over  Europe,  and  made  Greek  literature 
familiar  to  all  cultivated  minds.  This  was  the  later  and 
more  important  Renaissance.  But  there  was  an  earlier 
Renaissance  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Dante,  penetrated 
as  he  is  with  the  learning  of  the  schoolmen,  reverences 
Vergil  as  his  leader  and  master.  Petrarch,  nearly  his 
contemporary,  devoted  his  best  talents  to  the  revival  of 
the  study  of  antiquity.  The  flush  of  this  early  dawn 
spread  even  to  France  and  England.  The  first  great  Italian 
schoolmaster  of  the  new  type  was  Vittorino  da  Feltre,  who 
taught  at  Mantua,  at  the  court  of  the  Gonzagas.  He  was 
a  little,  lean,  sprightly  man,  who  lived  entirely  among  his 
scholars,  and  devoted  himself  to  their  service.  He  was 
lodged  by  his  princely  masters  in  a  palace  with  galleries, 
halls,  and  porticoes,  spacious  courts,  and  springing  foun¬ 
tains,  the  walls  painted  with  frescoes  of  children  at  play. 
He  laid  great  stress  on  moral  education  ;  his  discipline 
was  strict  both  for  himself  and  others.  He  was  the  com¬ 
panion  of  his  pupils  in  play  as  well  as  work.  The  main 
point  of  his  instruction  was  language.  His  favorite 
authors  were  Vergil  and  Cicero,  Homer  and  Demosthenes. 
His  pupils  were  expected  to  know  these  authors  before 


44 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


they  went  on  to  any  others.  They  were  also  trained  in 
discussion,  in  mathematics,  and  in  music.  The  best  mas¬ 
ters  in  each  study  were  engaged  by  him.  Four  learned 
Greeks  inspired  a  taste  for  their  own  language.  Vittorino 
lived  to  a  good  old  age,  dying  in  1477.  His  spiritual 
successor  in  Mantua  was  Castiglione,  the  author  of  the 
well-known  book,  “II  Cortigiano,”  which  was  intended 
by  him  to  be  a  complete  handbook  of  a  courtier’s  educa¬ 
tion.  These  works  had  their  effect  in  England.  At  this 
time  the  communication  between  Italy  and  England  was 
easy  and  frequent.  Inspired  by  these  influences  John 
Colet  founded  the  school  of  St.  Paul’s  in  London,  and 
Thomas  More  sketched  the  plan  of  a  refined  education  in 
Utopia.  These  votaries  of  a  more  liberal  culture  had  no 
idea  of  the  wide  effects  which  would  result  from  this 
movement. 

It  eventually  terminated  in  two  directions — the  refor¬ 
mation  of  religion,  and  the  reformation  of  learning.  Eras¬ 
mus  stands  at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  and  may  be  re¬ 
garded  as  typical  of  the  whole  change.  He  has  left  us 
several  formal  treatises  on  the  education  of  youth.  Be¬ 
fore  the  seventh  year,  letters  (even  Greek  and  Latin), 
are  to  be  taught  in  play,  as  well  as  religion  and  reverence, 
and  discipline  is  to  be  mild  rather  than  severe.  Next 
comes  the  important  choice  of  a  tutor.  While  your  child 
is  young  keep  him  with  you  in  your  house  ;  in  large 
schools  there  is  great  danger  of  corruption.  Afterward, 
it  is  well  to  educate  five  or  six  boys  together,  or,  if  your 
son  goes  to  a  public  school,  give  him  a  private  tutor. 
M  ords  must  come  before  things.  Greek  and  Latin  gram¬ 
mars  are  to  be  learned  together.  When  the  pupil  is  well 
grounded  in  language  he  can  pay  attention  to  the  subject 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


45 


matter,  especially  what  is  contained  in  Greek.  The  mem¬ 
ory  is  to  be  carefully  trained,  first  by  great  exactness  in 
teaching,  then  by  hanging  tables  of  things  to  be  remem¬ 
bered  on  the  walls..  The  sense  of  authors  is  to  be  fully 
explained,  without  an  idle  parade  of  useless  learning. 
Greek  grammar  is  always  to  be  a  few  steps  ahead  of  Latin. 
Translations  of  Greek  into  Latin  are  to  be  practised. 
But  we  must  not  push  this  exact  knowledge  so  far  as  to 
attempt  to  write  like  Cicero.  Since  the  time  of  Cicero 
the  circumstances  of  the  world  have  changed.  The  true 
imitation  of  the  ancients  is  not  to  follow  the  letter  but  the 
spirit  of  their  works.  Besides  the  sciences,  children 
should  learn  an  art — painting,  sculpture,  or  architecture. 
Religious  instruction  is  of  the  highest  importance.  Rev¬ 
erence  is  to  be  taught  by  observing  the  splendor  of  the 
heavens,  the  richness  of  the  earth,  the  sparkling  fountain, 
the  murmuring  stream,  the  boundless  sea,  the  various 
kinds  of  animals,  all  created  for  the  service  of  man.  The 
education  of  girls  is  as  important  as  that  of  boys.  The 
foundations  of  either  education  must  be  laid  in  the  house. 
The  groundwork  of  all  teaching  lies  in  reverence  and 
obedience  to  parents. 

Thus  we  see  that  at  the  very  time  when  the  old  Church 
was  losing  its  hold  over  the  minds  of  men,  circumstances 
were  occurring  to  give  to  the  education  which  it  afforded 
a  narrow  character  of  a  peculiar  kind.  Meagre  and  un¬ 
satisfactory  as  was  the  instruction  of  the  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  it  was  at  least  encyclopaedic  in  its  aim  and 
intention.  It  comprehended,  or  claimed  to  comprehend, 
the  grammar  of  the  humanists,  the  logic  of  the  schoolmen, 
the  rhetoric  of  the  Romans,  the  music  of  the  Greeks,  the 
mathematics  of  Newton,  and  the  science  of  Herbert  Spen- 


46 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


cer.  Disgust  with  scholastic  subtlety,  and  the  newly 
realized  charm  of  Plato  and  Cicero,  beguiled  it  into  a 
laborious  imitation  of  the  style  and  language  of  the 
ancients.  The  breach  between  the  .reformed  and  un¬ 
reformed  Church  left  the  Protestants  without  any  higher 
education.  Luther  and  Melanchthon  labored  hard  to  sup¬ 
ply  this  want,  but  one  by  necessity,  and  the  other  by  the 
predilection  of  his  nature,  followed  in  the  path  already 
chosen  for  its  children  by  the  rival  faith.  We  shall  see 
how  the  curriculum  of  humanistic  education  was  sys¬ 
tematized  by  John  Sturm,  of  Strasburg,  into  a  form  which 
has  lasted  as  the  pattern  of  secondary  education  down  to 
our  own  generation.  The  classical  education,  which  is 
the  staple  production  of  our  public  schools,  is  in  a  certain 
sense  the  accident  of  an  accident.  It  happened  that  in 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  education  of 
Catholic  Europe  was  strongly  humanistic  ;  it  happened 
that  the  breach  of  the  great  schism  gave  the  Reformers  a 
strong  inducement  to  imitate  the  culture  of  their  Catholic 
rivals.  But  a  great  opportunity  was  lost.  Had  the  realis¬ 
tic  education  of  Ratich  and  Comenius  been  preached  a 
little  earlier,  or  had  Protestant  nations  welcomed  it  with 
greater  unanimity,  the  new  religion  might  have  framed 
for  itself  a  new  course  of  instruction,  which,  leading  to 
far  richer  results  than  can  be  obtained  by  the  study  of 
language,  would  have  advanced  by  a  hundred  years  the 
intelligence  of  modern  Europe. 

Still  the  Reformation  did  much,  for  Luther,  the  founder 
of  the  new  Church,  looked  to  national  education  as  the 
best  bulwark  and  defence  of  the  edifice  he  had  reared. 
He  was,  perhaps,  the  first  to  conceive  the  idea  of  a  really 
universal  education.  His  address  to  the  municipal  au- 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


47 


thorities  of  all  the  towns  in  Germany  in  1524  is  a  man¬ 
ifesto  to  the  German  people  similar  to  that  by  which 
Fichte  in  1813  called  upon  his  countrymen  to  seek  in 
self-culture  the  truest  foundations  of  national  life  and 
strength.  He  founded  religion  on  the  life  of  the  family, 
and  made  his  own  family  a  model  for  others  to  imitate. 
The  duty  of  the  family  was  to  educate  first  in  religion, 
then  in  the  refinements  of  worldly  learning.  But  the 
teaching  of  Luther  would  not  have  commended  itself  to 
the  cultivated  spirits  of  the  time  if  he  had  not  possessed 
a  coadjutor  of  a  different  type,  who  justly  earned  the  title 
of  prceceptor  Germanice ,  Philip  Schwarzerde  or  Melanch- 
thon.  Both  as  a  writer  of  school-books  and  as  a  practi¬ 
cal  teacher,  he  succeeded  in  giving  form  to  the  new  learn¬ 
ing.  He  threw  himself  into  the  study  of  Greek,  and 
when  almost  a  boy  himself  wrote  a  grammar  for  school¬ 
boys.  This  was  followed  a  year  later  by  a  Latin  gram¬ 
mar.  Conscious,  perhaps,  of  the  defects  of  mere  linguis¬ 
tic  training,  he  worked  at  other  departments  of  the  old 
curriculum.  He  wrote  an  elementary  treatise  on  logic 
and  dialectic,  and  another  on  rhetoric  intended  as  an 
introduction  to  Cicero  and  Quintilian.  He  composed  a 
treatise  on  physical  science,  “  Initia  doctrinse  physicse,” 
which  was  the  earnest  of  a  better  treatment  of  this  im¬ 
portant  subject.  He  also  wrote  on  psychology  and  ethics. 
But  the  strength  of  his  mind  did  not  lie  in  this  direction. 
He  was  following  a  more  congenial  task  in  writing  ex¬ 
planatory  editions  of  classics,  like  those  which  have  in 
our  own  day  received  so  wide  a  development.  Greater 
than  the  influence  of  his  writings  was  that  of  his  personal 
teaching.  By  his  lectures  at  the  university  of  Wittenberg, 
delivered  sometimes  to  an  audience  of  two  thousand  stu- 


48 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


dents  of  all  nations,  and  by  the  school  which  he  held  in 
his  own  house,  he  exhibited  a  model  of  what  such  insti¬ 
tutions  were  to  become  in  later  days.  It  requires  an 
effort  of  mind  for  us  to  realize  how  serious  a  thing  it 
was  in  embracing  the  reformed  faith  to  break  with  the 
intellectual  traditions  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Let  one  ex¬ 
ample  suffice.  The  writings  of  Thomas  Aquinas  are 
scarcely  known  to  Protestants  5  yet  if  we  were  drawing 
up  a  muster  roll  of  the  intellectual  giants  of  the  world,  he 
would  have  every  claim  to  stand  in  the  first  rank. 

It  is  mainly  due  to  Melanchthon  that  Protestantism  be¬ 
came  acceptable  to  the  intellect  of  the  man  of  letters. 
But  the  man  who  gave  a  permanent  form  to  the  new 
education,  which  has  lasted  but  little  changed  to  the  pres¬ 
ent  day,  is  John  Sturm,  of  Strasburg,  who  was  rector  of 
the  gymnasium  of  that  town  for  forty-five  years,  from 
1538  to  1583.  He  died  in  the  year  1589,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-three.  He  occupied  a  position  of  eminence  in 
Protestant  Europe.  He  was  the  friend  of  Charles  V.  of 
Germany  and  of  Elizabeth  of  England.  His  fame  reached 
to  Hungary,  Transylvania,  and  Poland.  In  1578  his 
school  contained  several  thousand  students.  It  will  be 
worth  while  to  describe  his  system  of  instruction  in  some 
detail.  He  wished  his  pupils  to  come  to  school  at  the  age 
of  six  or  seven  ;  the  school  course  should  occupy  nine 
years.  At  sixteen  the  pupil  should  remove  to  the  acad¬ 
emy,  where  lectures  should  be  substituted  for  regular  les¬ 
sons.  His  education  was  to  be  considered  as  complete  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one.  Of  the  nine  years  spent  at  the 
gymnasium,  seven  were  to  be  devoted  to  the  mastery  of 
pure  idiomatic  Latin,  the  next  two  to  the  acquisition  of 
an  elegant  style,  and  in  the  five  collegiate  years  the  pupil 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


49 


was  to  be  fashioned  into  a  consummate  speaker.  Thus 
the  groundwork  of  the  whole  system  is  language.  It  is 
humanism  in  its  purest  form.  To  the  ninth  class  was  at 
a  later  period  prefixed  a  tenth.  We  possess  the  detailed 
instructions  which  Sturm  gave  to  the  teachers  of  each  of 
his  classes,  so  that  we  can  speak  with  certainty  as  to  his 
method.  In  the  tenth  class  was  to  be  learned  the  alphabet, 
spelling,  reading  and  writing,  all  the  paradigms  of  the 
nouns  and  verbs  in  Latin,  and  the  German  catechism. 
The  master  of  the  ninth  class  was  to  add  to  this  previous 
knowledge  the  anomalous  and  irregular  forms.  The 
scholars  were  also  to  learn  a  number  of  Latin  words 
arranged  in  regular  series,  so  that  they  might  be  supplied 
with  a  rich  vocabulary.  The  work  of  the  eighth  class  in 
its  earlier  months  was  to  go  over  what  they  had  previously 
learned  and  to  extend  the  vocabulary,  the  pupils  being  en¬ 
couraged  to  make  lists  of  words  for  themselves.  At  the 
end  of  the  year  they  began  to  read  select  letters  of  Cicero, 
and  composed  short  written  essays  in  style.  They  also 
learned  the  German  catechism.  The  seventh  class  began 
syntax,  and  this  was  carefully  applied  to  their  previous 
acquisitions,  the  examples  being  mainly  drawn  from 
Cicero.  The  exercises  in  style  were  continued  with  the 
help  of  the  black-board,  and  Cato  was  read  as  well  as 
Cicero,  and  music  was  commenced.  In  the  sixth  class  at 
the  age  of  ten  the  boys  began  Greek,  reading  the  fables 
of  ,/Esop.  To  the  harder  letters  of  Cicero  were  now 
added  the  comedies  of  Terence  and  some  selections  of 
Latin  poetry.  The  fifth  class  learned  prosody  and  mythol¬ 
ogy,.  Cicero’s  Cato  and  Lafiius,  and  the  eclogues  of  Ver¬ 
gil  were  read.  The  lessons  in  style  were  continued,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  year  they  were  initiated  into  the  art  of 


50 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


making  nonsense  Latin  verses.  The  fourth  class  read  the 
eighth  oration  against  Verres,  the  epistles  and  satires  of 
Horace,  and  one  of  the  easier  epistles  of  St.  Paul 
in  Greek.  The  third  class  added  to  this  the  graces  of 
rhetoric,  tropes,  and  figures,  all  illustrated  by  examples. 
In  Greek  they  read  Demosthenes  and  began  Homer. 
The  exercises  in  style  were  continued  and  carried  to  a 
higher  level,  and  the  comedies  of  Terence  and  Plautus 
were  acted.  The  chief  subject  of  teaching  in  the  second 
class  was  logic  and  its  sister  rhetoric,  both  of  which  were 
applied  to  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero. 
Finally,  the  first  class  was  to  carry  logic  and  rhetoric  to 
a  higher  point,  and  the  students  were  now  considered  to 
be  ready  for  the  university. 

Ho  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  education  given  at 
our  principal  classical  schools,  Eton,  Winchester,  and 
Westminster,  forty  years  ago,  can  fail  to  see  that  their 
curriculum  was  framed  to  a  great  degree  on  Sturm’s  model. 
During  our  own  generation  the  subjects  of  school  teaching 
have  been  largely  multiplied,  and  we  can  afford  to  look 
down  on  the  humanistic  scheme  as  narrow  and  incom¬ 
plete  ;  but  it  had  at  least  this  merit,  that  it  was  a  well- 
considered  plan,  harmonious  in  its  arrangement,  with  its 
parts  well  fitting  into  one  another.  The  master  of  each 
class  knew  precisely  what  the  boys  confided  to  him  were 
expected  to  learn.  When  they  proceeded  to  the  uni¬ 
versity  the  preliminary  instruction  which  they  took  with 
them  had  been  well  defined.  This,  at  least  in  our  Eng¬ 
lish  schools,  is  not  the  case  now.  Ho  schemes  of  edu¬ 
cation  wdiich  are  not  carefully  framed  and  exactly  de¬ 
termined  in  their  general  outline,  if  not  in  their  details, 
can  be  carried  out  without  a  serious  waste  of  time. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


51 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  REALISTS - RATICH  AND  COMENIUS. 

It  will  have  been  seen  that  the  ideal  of  the  humanistic 
education  was  the  study  of  words.  When  Sturm’s  pupil 
had  passed  through  his  nine  or  ten  years  of  school  and 
was  transferred  to  the  university,  he  was  still  to  he  per¬ 
fected  in  style,  and  to  be  made  a  consummate  writer  and 
speaker.  There  were  two  disadvantages  in  this  conception 
of  education.  First,  that  words  were  taught  instead  of 
things  ;  and  second,  that  language  was  taught  not  as  a 
living  organic  whole,  fitted  and  complete '  for  the  service 
of  life,  but  as  a  collection  of  dried  specimens  tabulated 
and  arranged  by  the  ingenuity  of  grammarians.  Indeed, 
the  nomenclature  of  grammar,  parts  of  speech,  terms  of 
prosody  and  syntax,  elaborate  names  for  figures  of  expres¬ 
sion,  were  thought  of  greater  importance  than  the  life  and 
vigor  of  the  poet  or  the  orator.  We  should  expect  that 
these  faults  would  have  been  discovered,  and  a  stimulus 
was  undoubtedly  given  to  their  correction  by  the  dawn  of 
that  illumination  of  intellect  which  in  the  history  of  the 
human  mind  is  usually  connected  with  the  name  of  Bacon. 
Certainly,  more  than  any  man  of  his  time,  Bacon  seems 
to  have  realized  that  he  was  standing  at  the  vestibule  of  a 
new  age,  and  was  charged  with  the  mission  of  showing 
the  insufficiency  of  the  past  and  the  bright  hopes  of  the 
future.  The  secret  which  he  discovered  was  to  substitute 
in  inquiry  the  method  of  induction  for  the  method  of 
deduction.  Instead  of  setting  out  with  a  preconceived 


52 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


principle  or  an  inherited  formula,  and  deducing  all  knowl¬ 
edge  from  it,  men  were  encouraged  to  interpret  nature, 
and  to  learn  her  secrets  by  careful  inquiry  and  experience. 
The  lock  was  to  be  opened,  that  was  the  problem.  Other 
philosophers  had  tried  key  after  key,  each  more  compli¬ 
cated  than  the  other.1  Bacon  said,  take  the  lock  to  pieces 
and  examine  its  mechanism,  and  you  will  then  be  able  to 
make  a  key  which  will  open  it.  But  the  mind  must  ap¬ 
proach  the  problem  without  prejudice  ;  the  idols,  as  he 
calls  them,  of  the  race,  of  the  den,  of  the  market-place, 
and  of  the  theatre,  must  be  got  rid  of.  In  other  words, 
we  must  clear  our  minds  of  the  prepossessions  which  we 
have  as  human  beings,  of  those  which  are  peculiar  to  our 
individual  nature,  of  those  wdiich  arise  from  the  ordinary 
language  of  mankind,  and  of  those  which  are  caused  by 
the  tyranny  of  philosophical  systems.  For  men  whose 
minds  were  thus  prepared  for  speculation,  Bacon  organized 
a  new  method  of  interrogating  nature  ;  he  formed  a  con¬ 
spectus  of  the  sciences,  showing  exactly  what  point  of  ad¬ 
vance  each  of  them  had  reached  in  his  own  day,  and  in 
this  he  showed  his  enlightenment  by  ranging  pedagogics, 
or  the  science  of  education,  as  a  department  of  psychology. 
It  was  only  natural  that  the  new  method  should  give  a 
great  impulse  to  the  science  of  education.  Hitherto  in 
that,  if  in  any,  mere  empiricism  had  been  followed,  and 
in  that,  if  in  any,  it  was  reasonable  to  follow  the  guidance 
of  nature.  The  man  who  felt  himself  called  to  reorganize 
education  on  this  new  basis,  to  train  a  new  generation  of 
the  human  race  fit  for  more  difficult  enterprises  and  more 

1  Ich  stand  am  Thor,  ihr  solltet  Schliissel  seyn 
Zwar  euer  Bart  ist  kraus,  doch  hebt  ihr  nicht  die  Biegel. 

Faust. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


53 


extended  conquests,  was  John  Amos  Comenius.  But  his 
name  is  generally  connected  with  that  of  a  distinguished 
forerunner  whose  speculations  had  a  large  effect  in  stimu¬ 
lating  his  own,  and  who,  if  he  confined  his  actual  reforms 
to  a  narrower  sphere,  showed  that  he  had  to  some  degree 
realized  the  possibility  of  the  improvement  which  his  suc¬ 
cessor  was  to  carry  out.  Wolfgang  Rathe,  sometimes 
called  Ratichius  according  as  we  follow  the  high  or  low 
German  form  of  his  name,  was  born  at  Wilster,  in  Hol¬ 
stein,  in  1571.  His  early  studies  were  devoted  to  Hebrew, 
Arabic,  and  mathematics,  and  in  the  course  of  these  he 
developed  a  new  method  of  teaching  which  he  offered  to 
the  German  Diet  at  Frankfort,  May  7th,  1612,  as  a 
scheme  fraught  with  momentous  consequences  to  the  im¬ 
provement  of  the  human  race.  A  year  later  he  had  an 
opportunity  given  him  of  trying  his  system  in  the  capital 
of  the  principality  of  Anhalt-Kothen,  but  his  life,  like 
that  of  most  educational  reformers,  was  full  of  failure  and 
disappointment.  His  best  chance  of  useful  employment 
lay  with  Oxenstiern,  Chancellor  of  Sweden,  one  of  the 
most  enlightened  men  of  his  age,  who  spared  no  effort  to 
increase  that  little  wisdom  with  which  he  knew  human 
affairs  to  be  usually  conducted.  Oxenstiern  asked  for  an 
interview,  but  Raticli  sent  him  a  quarto  instead.  When 
he  had  mastered  it  he  found  that  the  author  had  displayed 
admirably  the  faults  of  existing  schools,  but  had  not 
prepared  any  sufficient  remedy  for  their  improvement. 
Ratich  died  in  1635,  at  the  age  of  64. 

His  reforms  when  examined  do  not  amount  to  much 
more  than  a  better  method  of  teaching  languages.  4  he 
pupil  is  first  to  learn  his  mother  tongue.  This  is  a  great 
step  in  advance.  German  occupied  the  first  three  classes 


54 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


in  the  school  at  Kothen.  In  the  fourth  class  the  pupil 
proceeded  to  Latin,  and  for  the  teaching  of  this  Terence 
was  chosen  as  a  model  book,  to  occupy  the  same  position 
as  Telemaque  did  in  the  scheme  of  Jacotot.  Ratich  de¬ 
scribes  his  peculiar  method  at  great  length.  In  default  of 
German  translations  of  Terence,  the  teacher  is  first  to 
give  an  account  of  the  substance  of  the  whole  play  and  of 
each  act  in  German,  and  is  then  to  translate  the  author 
twice  through  literally,  word  for  word,  the  boys  sitting 
and  listening  attentively.  This  is  to  occupy  a  few  weeks. 

Then  the  boys  are  to  begin  to  translate,  being  always 
helped  by  the  teacher,  and  when  they  have  gone  through 
the  author  a  third  time,  the}’’  are  then  at  last  to  take  the 
grammar  into  their  hands.  In  the  fourth  repetition  of 
Terence  the  boys  are  to  have  their  grammar  before  them, 
and  carefully  to  compare  every  rule  with  the  examples  as 
they  occur.  In  other  repetitions  the  analysis  of  the  au¬ 
thor  is  to  be  carried  out  with  still  greater  completeness, 
and  to  be  continued  until  it  is  thoroughly  known.  Not 
until  an  intimate  familiarity  with  the  style  of  Terence  has 
been  attained  is  composition  to  be  attempted,  and  then  in 
short  oral  sentences,  framed  first  by  the  teacher  and  then 
by  the  pupils. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  method  is  the  exact  opposite  of 
that  pursued  by  Sturm.  There  the  formal  part  of  gram¬ 
mar,  divided  elaborately  into  portions  for  each  year,  was 
made  the  staple,  and  the  reading  of  the  author  considered 
as  subordinate.  With  Ratich,  the  very  first  thing  was  to 
state  clearly  the  general  drift  of  the  author’s  meaning,  and 
the  grammar  was  abstracted  by  the  efforts  of  each  indi¬ 
vidual  pupil.  This  method  of  proceeding  in  learning  lan¬ 
guages  from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract  has  found  many 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


55 


advocates  since  the  time  of  Ratich,  the  most  distinguished 
of  whom  are  Jacotot  and  Hamilton.  It  is  in  all  prob¬ 
ability  the  best  and  readiest  way  of  learning,  but  it  re¬ 
quires  two  conditions  which  are  not  always  at  hand — ability 
in  the  teacher,  and  diligence  in  the  pupil. 

Besides  this  method,  of  which  we  have  a  complete 
account,  Ratich  has  left  a  number  of  aphorisms  on  teach¬ 
ing  which  have  a  wider  scope.  These  are  :  (1)  In  all 
teaching  follow  the  order  and  course  of  nature,  for  all 
learning  which  is  enforced  and  contrary  to  nature  is 
harmful,  and  weakens  nature.  (2)  Teach  only  one  thing 
at  a  time,  for  nothing  hinders  the  understanding  so  much 
as  the  attempt  to  learn  many  things  at  the  same  time  ; 
therefore,  first  finish  one  thing  well  and  then  go  on  to 
another.  You  can  learn  any  language  out  of  a  single 
author.  This  precept  is  the  same  as  the  toutest  dans  tout 
of  Jacotot.  (3)  Often  repeat  the  same  thing  ;  what  is 
often  repeated  sinks  deeply  into  the  understanding,  but 
by  learning  many  things  in  a  confused  way  the  under¬ 
standing  is  confused  and  shaken.  (4)  Learn  everything 
first  in  the  mother  tongue.  This  has  the  advantage  that 
the  pupil  has  then  only  to  think  of  the  thing  he  has  to 
learn,  and  not  of  the  medium  in  which  he  learns  it.  From 
the  mother  tongue  proceed  to  other  languages.  (5)  Learn 
everything  without  compulsion.  By  blows  and  compul¬ 
sion  studies  become  hateful  to  young  students.  It  is  also 
against  nature.  Boys  are  beaten  because  they  do  not 
remember  what  you  have  taught  them,  but  if  you  had 
taught  them  properly  they  would  have  remembered  it. 
Now  they  have  to  suffer  for  your  negligence.  To  carry 
this  out  farther,  Ratich  proposed  to  divide  the  duties  of 
teaching  and  punishment.  The  teacher  must  do  nothing 


56 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


but  teach,  discipline  belongs  to  the  scholarch.  The  pupil 
must  conceive  no  dislike  for  the  teacher,  but  love  him 
more  and  more.  (6)  Learn  nothing  by  heart  ;  if  a  man 
depends  much  on  learning  by  heart  he  loses  understanding 
and  acuteness.  If  the  mind  has  grasped  anything  by  fre¬ 
quent  repetition  it  is  naturally  remembered  without  diffi¬ 
culty.  Lessons  must  not  be  given  for  two  consecutive 
hours.  The  pupil  must  listen  to  the  teacher  in  silence, 
he  must  say  nothing,  and  ask  no  questions  during  the  les¬ 
sons  so  as  not  to  interrupt  the  others.  All  questions 
must  be  asked  after  the  lesson.  (V)  Have  uniformity  in 
everything,  both  in  the  methods  of  teaching  as  well  as  in 
books  and  precepts.  Let  the  grammars  correspond  with 
each  other  as  far  as  may  be,  whether  they  be  in  German, 
Hebrew,  or  Greek.  (8)  First  teach  tlie  thing  itself,  then 
the  manner  of  the  thing.  Give  no  rules  until  you  have 
given  the  matter,  the  author,  and  the  language.  Rules 
without  matter  confuse  the  understanding.  (9)  Teach 
everything  by  experience  and  inquiry,  piece  by  piece. 
Authority  is  of  no  value  by  itself  unless  ground  and  reason 
be  there  also.  No  rule  or  notion  will  be  implanted  in  the 
mind  unless  it  has  been  verified  and  found  correct  by 
proof. 

John  Amos  Comenius  or  Komenski  w'as  a  reformer  of 
a  more  vigorous  type.  He  was  born  at  Nivnitz,  in 
Moravia,  in  1592.  When  he  was  twenty-six  years  old 
the  Thirty  Years’  War  broke  out,  and  unfortunately  the 
whole  of  his  manhood  was  coincident  with  that  disastrous 
period.  In  1616  he  published  a  short  Latin  Grammar,  to 
introduce  a  better  method  of  learning  the  language.  In 
1627  he  produced  a  short  metliododogy,  or  course  of 
study,  and  at  Lissa,  in  Silesia,  in  the  year  1631,  he  wrote 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


57 


his  first  great  book,  the  ‘  ‘  J anna  Linguarum  Reserata,  ’  ’ 
the  door  of  languages  unlocked.  It  consists  of  a  number 
of  dialogues  and  remarks  on  familiar  subjects,  with  trans¬ 
lations  on  the  opposite  page,  and  simple  illustrations.  It 
soon  made  the  tour  of  Europe,  and  was  translated 
into  twelve  languages.  Seven  years  later  he  was  invited  to 
Sweden,  but  he  refused  the  invitation  and  devoted  him¬ 
self  to  composing  his  greatest  work,  the  “  Didactica 
Magna,”  a  complete  handbook  of  education  in  all  its 
branches,  and  the  first  attempt  to  write  a  systematic 
treatise  on  the  whole  subject.  An  extract  from  the  pre¬ 
face  to  this  work  made  its  way  to  England,  and  had,  as 
we  shall  afterward  see,  an  important  effect  on  Milton.  In 
the  autumn  of  1641  Comcnius  was  summoned  to  England 
by  order  of  the  Parliament.  The  king  being  in  Scotland 
and  the  Parliament  prorogued  for  three  months,  he  spent 
the  winter  in  London.  lie  tells  us  that  the  Parliament 
intended  to  appoint  a  committee  to  inquire  into  the  ques¬ 
tion,  and  that  they  had  some  idea  of  assigning  to  him 
some  college  with  its  revenues,  whereby  a  certain  number 
of  learned  and  industrious  men  might  be  honorably  main¬ 
tained,  either  for  a  term  of  years  or  in  perpetuity. 
“  There  was  even  named  for  the  purpose  the  Savoy  in 
London  ;  Winchester  College,  also,  out  of  London,  was 
named  ;  and  again,  nearer  the  city,  Chelsea  College,  inven¬ 
tories  of  which  and  of  its  revenues  were  communicated  to 
us,  so  that  nothing  seemed  more  certain  than  that  the  de¬ 
sign  of  the  great  Verulam  concerning  the  opening  some¬ 
where  of  an  universal  college  of  all  nations  devoted  to  the 
advancement  of  the  sciences  would  be  carried  out.  But  a 
rumor  that  Ireland  was  in  a  state  of  commotion,  and  that 
more  than  200,000  of  the  English  there  had  been  slaugh- 
5 


58 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


tered  in  one  night,  the  sudden  departure  of  the  king  from 
London,  and  the  clear  indications  that  a  most  cruel  war 
was  on  the  point  of  breaking  out,  threw  all  these  plans 
into  confusion,  and  compelled  me  and  my  friends  to  hasten 
our  return.”  Returning  to  Germany  he  remodelled  his 
“  Janua  Linguarum,”  and  published  it  in  1648,  the  year 
of  the  Peace  of  Westphalia.  In  1650  Comenius  was  sum¬ 
moned  to  Hungary  by  Prince  Rakoczi.  He  remained 
with  him  four  years,  and  devoted  himself  to  remodelling 
the  school  system  on  his  estates.  He  devised  a  system  of 
school  work,  dividing  the  school  into  seven  classes,  each 
class  to  occupy  a  year,  from  the  age  of  ten  to  that  of 
seventeen.  In  the  first  three  years  his  own  books,  the 
“  Vestibulum,”  the  “  Janua,”  and  the  “  Atrium,”  were 
to  be  read.  The  next  four  classes  were  to  study,  respec¬ 
tively,  philosophica ,  logica,  politico.,  and  theologica ,  or 
theosophica.  The  first  three  classes  were  to  learn  com¬ 
mon  objects,  and  Latin,  writing,  arithmetic,  geometry  and 
music,  games  and  gymnastics  ;  the  fourth  class  was  to 
learn  Greek  and  Church  music,  and  to  begin  dramatic 
representations  ;  the  fifth  class  logic  and  metaphysics,  and 
so  on.  His  complete  works  on  education  under  the  title 
of  “  Opera  Didactica”  were  published  in  1657.  He  died 
on  November  15th,  1671.  It  is  an  evidence  of  the  neg¬ 
lect  with  which  educational  speculation  has  been  treated, 
that  the  best  works  of  this  powerful  and  systematic  thinker 
have  been  so  little  read.  Let  us  attempt  to  ascertain  from 
his  own  great  treatise  on  education  what  his  principles  of 
education  were.1 

The  end  of  man,  Comenius  says,  is  to  attain  eternal 

1  In  what  follows  I  have  attempted,  with  the  help  of  Yogel, 
a  short  abstract  of  the  “  Didactica  Magna.” 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


59 


happiness  in  and  with  God.  This  life  is  only  a  preparation 
for  eternity.  The  life  of  man  is  threefold — vegetative, 
animal,  and  intellectual.  The  last  alone  is  real.  Man 
has  by  nature  the  impulse  to  improve  the  qualities  with 
which  he  is  endowed,  so  that  he  may  grow  in  virtue  and 
piety.  But  this  end  can  only  be  attained  by  education. 
It  is  the  duty  and  the  object  of  the  school  to  help  a  man 
to  compass  this,  for  men  are  moulded  more  easily  in  their 
youth.  Education  in  the  school  should  be  common  to  all, 
and  the  same  for  both  sexes.  The  three  graces  of  the 
soul  are  perception,  will,  and  memory,  or  conscience.  All. 
men  are  naturally  anxious  to  use  their  perception,  to 
obtain  harmony  of  their  moral  nature,  and  the  love  of 
God.  For  the  groundwork  of  all  men’s  nature  is  the 
same  ;  the  difference  of  individuals  consists  only  in  excess 
or  defect  of  qualities  which  spoil  the  harmony  of  nature, 
and  the  problem  of  education  is  how  to  get  rid  of  this 
evil.  If  this  theory  be  true,  man  can  only  become  man 
bv  education.  The  true  method  of  education  is  to  follow 
nature,  and,  as  every  man’s  nature  develops  itself  by  virtue 
of  an  implanted  tendency,  you  have  only  to  assist  these 
tendencies  and  to  remove  hindrances  out  of  their  path. 
Upon  these  general  principles  Comenius  founds  a  system 
of  short,  easy,  and  speedy  learning.  He  goes  into  every 
detail  in  turn,  and  completes  his  inquiry  with  a  full  de¬ 
scription  of  the  organization  of  his  school.  In  describing 
his  method  he  attempts  to  deduce  everything  from  the 
teaching  of  nature.  In  this  lie  often  follows  a  false 
analogy,  and  this  defect  has  probably  stood  in  the  way  of 
the  ready  acceptance  of  his  theories.  He  says  that  you 
should  follow  this  and  that  precept,  because  this  is  what 
the  bird  does,  and  because  the  tree  grows  in  such  and  such 


60 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


a  manner.  He  thus  seems  to  imagine  that  the  analogy  of 
organic  nature  can  always  be  applied  to  the  inner  growth 
of  the  soul.  This,  however,  does  not  deprive  his  prin¬ 
ciple  of  practical  value.  Further,  there  is  a  ring  of  false 
magniloquence  in  the  promises  with  which  he  sets  out. 
There  is  a  discrepancy  between  the  scheme  of  an  instaura- 
tion  of  universal  learning  and  the  publication  of  a  picture- 
book  like  the  “  Orbis  Pictus.”  Moreover  his  psychology 
is  defective,  as  could  only  be  expected  in  that  age.  But 
these  faults  do  not  deprive  his  system  of  its  intrinsic  value. 

To  continue  our  analysis.  A  man  is  destined  by  his 
nature  to  be  three  things  :  (1)  a  reasonable  being  ;  (2)  a 
being  bearing  rule  over  others  ;  (3)  a  being  who  is  the 
pattern  of  his  Creator.  (1)  As  a  reasonable  being  man 
must  know  what  the  world  contains  ;  the  power  of  the 
elements,  the  change  of  the  seasons,  the  stars,  the  nature 
of  animals,  the  thoughts  of  men,  plants,  all  that  is  open 
and  all  that  is  concealed,  the  knowledge  of  the  artificer, 
the  art  of  the  speaker.  (2)  In  his  second  capacity  man 
must  know  to  assign  each  thing  to  its  proper  end,  so  as 
to  be  able  to  turn  it  to  his  advantage  ;  to  move  royally 
among  all  creatures,  to  submit  to  no  created  thing,  not 
even  to  his  own  body  ;  to  turn  everything  to  his  service, 
to  be  able  to  command  all  movements  and  actions,  ex¬ 
ternal  and  internal,  his  own  and  those  of  others  with 
prudence.  (3)  As  the  pattern  of  God,  man  must  repre¬ 
sent  in  his  life  the  completeness  of  the  divine  type.  In 
short  he  must  know  all  things,  command  all  things,  in¬ 
cluding  himself,  refer  everything,  including  himself,  to 
God,  as  the  source  of  all  things. 

This  result  is  to  be  brought  about  in  three  ways  :  (1) 
by  education  and  instruction  ;  (2)  by  virtue  and  morality  ; 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


61 


(3)  by  religion  and  piety.  Education  or  instruction  in¬ 
cludes  the  knowledge  of  all  arts  and  languages  ;  morality 
includes  not  only  external  demeanor  but  external  and  in¬ 
ternal  harmony  of  emotion  ;  religion  includes  reverence. 
These  things  make  up  the  whole  man.  Everything  else, 
health,  strength,  beauty,  riches,  goodness,  friendship, 
prosperity,  and  long  life,  are  nothing  but  the  graces  of 
life.  Now  all  these  things,  if  taught  at  all,  must  be 
taught  in  early  youth,  and  children  must  be  taught 
together  in  common  schools.  The  duty  of  school  is  : 
(1)  to  instruct  in  sciences  and  arts  ;  (2)  to  refine  the 
methods  of  expression  ;  (3)  to  educate  with  a  view 

to  morality  ;  (4)  to  secure  the  reverence  of  God  in  the 
heart.  Schools  have  been  fitly  called  the  workshops 
of  humanity,  and  they  deserve  this  name  if  they  make 
men  (1)  wise  in  spirit,  (2)  clever  in  action,  (3)  pious  in 
heart.  The  duty  of  schools  may  be  divided  into  two 
large  sections  ;  we  learn  in  them  (1)  the  things  which 
surround  us,  (2)  ourselves.  Now  it  is  obvious  that  the 
schools  at  present  existing  are  not  sufficient  to  fulfil  this 
object  ;  it  is,  however,  possible  to  draw  up  a  system 
which  will  educate  the  entire  body  of  youth  that  is 
capable  of  receiving  education,  will  educate  them  in  all 
things  which  make  men  wise,  and  just,  and  pious,  and  will 
complete  this  education  before  the  years  of  maturity,  with¬ 
out  compulsion,  blows,  or  severity,  in  a  real  and  not  a 
superficial  manner,  and  perform  this  task  in  a  way  which 

will  not  be  difficult,  but  easy. 

The  great  principle  on  which  we  are  to  depend  as  our 
foundation  is,  that  a  man’s  nature  will  infallibly  move  in 
that  direction  in  which  nature  impels  it,  and  this  even 
with  pleasure,  feeling  pain  if  it  be  held  back.  All  that  is 


62 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


required  in  education  is  impulse  and  direction,  and  to  re¬ 
move  the  hindrances  which  God  has  suffered  to  exist  for 
the  stimulating  of  our  zeal.  Now  the  means  by  which 
this  education  can  be  accomplished  is  as  follows  :  (1)  by 
the  lengthening  of  life  ;  (2)  by  the  shortening  of  methods  ; 
(3)  by  the  seizing  of  opportunities  ;  (4)  by  enlarging  the 
powers  of  perception  ;  (5)  by  laying  a  sure  and  immovable 
foundation.  In  this  way  we  shall  be  able  :  (1)  to  learn 
more  ;  (2)  to  learn  more  quickly  ;  (3)  to  learn  more 
surely  ;  (4)  to  learn  more  thoroughly.  Length  of  life  may 
be  obtained  either  by  prolonging  life  itself,  or  by  doing  a 
great  deal  in  a  short  life.  It  has  been  held  that  life  might 
easily  be  prolonged  to  120  years.  Certainly  few  people 
make  the  best  use  of  their  lives.  The  school  can  help  in 
both  these  matters.  It  can  pay  careful  regard  to  the  rules 
of  health,  create  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body,  and  it 
can  train  men  to  make  the  most  of  their  lives.  We  must 
observe  here  that  Comenius  does  not  make  health  the  only 
or  the  principal  object  of  life,  but  health  coupled  with  a 
useful  and  active  existence. 

What  are  the  principal  rules  of  learning  ?  (1)  Educa¬ 

tion  must  begin  in  the  springtime  of  life  ;  (2)  the  morn¬ 
ing  hours  are  the  best  for  study  ;  (3)  all  subjects  of  study 
must  be  carefully  proportioned  to  the  age  and  capacity  of 
the  learner.  Then  we  must  have  all  the  appliances  of 
study  close  at  hand — books,  models,  and  tables.  In 
school  books  we  must  take  care  that  the  matter  precedes 
the  form  ;  that  is,  that  the  concrete  comes  before  the 
abstract.  So  we  must  learn  things  before  words,  and 
words  before  grammar.  We  must  learn  the  details  of 
an  art  or  science  before  its  principles,  we  must  learn  ex¬ 
amples  before  rules.  Again,  attendance  at  the  school 


educational  theories. 


63 


must  be  constant,  as  interruptions  hinder  learning,  and  we 
must  take  care  not  to  teach  our  pupil  what  he  is  not  fit  to 
learn.  We  must  not  teach  too  many  things  at  a  time  in 
hopeless  confusion.  This  would  be  like  a  baker  who  is 
always  opening  his  oven  to  put  in  new  loaves,  or  a  shoe¬ 
maker  who  tried  to  make  five  pairs  of  shoes  at  once. 
We  must  not  overburden  the  memory.  Understanding 
comes  first,  then  memory,  then  speech.  In  teaching  it  is 
best  first  to  give  a  general  sketch  of  the  whole  sub¬ 
ject,  then  to  give  rules  and  examples,  then  the  excep¬ 
tions  to  the  rules,  and  lastly,  detailed  explanations.  In 
teaching  we  must  not  proceed  by  leaps,  but  must  divide 
our  studies  into  classified  grades,  so  that  the  earlier  may 
prepare  the  way  for  the  later.  We  must  so  arrange  mat¬ 
ters  that  every  year,  every  month,  every  day,  every  hour, 
has  its  appointed  task.  The  school  must  be  in  a  quiet 
place,  free  from  noise  and  disturbance,  and  non-attendance 
must  be  strictly  discouraged.  We  must  guard  children 
against  books  and  companions  likely  to  do  them  harm. 
Such  are  the  rules  for  learning  surely. 

Now  to  learn  easily  we  must  observe  the  following. 
Education  must  begin  betimes,  not  distracted  with  a 
variety  of  teachers,  and  moral  education  must  take  prece¬ 
dence  of  the  rest.  Children  must  not  be  forced  to  study 
against  their  will,  but  we  must  do  our  best  to  arouse  an 
enthusiasm  for  learning  in  our  pupils,  and  our  methods 
must  be  such  as  to  make  learning  as  easy  as  possible. 
For  this  purpose  the  teacher  must  be  cheerful  and  kind, 
the  school  must  be  airy  and  attractive,  adorned  with  pic¬ 
tures  and  furnished  with  a  garden,  and  the  mannci  of 
teaching  must  be  as  far  as  possible  natural.  Emulation 
must  be  stimulated  by  public  declamations,  promotions, 


64 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


and  prizes.  The  principles  of  an  art  must  be  expressed 
in  short  and  clear  rules,  and  each  rule  must  consist  of 
short  and  clear  words,  and  be  furnished  with  several  ex¬ 
amples.  The  transition  must  be  from  the  easier  to  the 
harder.  How  absurd  it  is  to  give  the  rules  of  Latin  gram¬ 
mar  in  Latin,  or  to  teach  by  means  of  a  foreign  master  ! 
Teacher  and  learner  should  speak  the  same  language,  and 
all  explanations  should  be  given  in  the  mother  tongue. 

First  comes  understanding,  then  writing,  then  speech. 
Examples  must  be  drawn  from  common  objects.  With 
children  we  must  educate  first  their  perception,  then  their 
memory,  then  their  insight,  and,  lastly,  their  judgment. 
Again,  the  school  hours  must  not  be  too  long — four  at 
the  outside,  and  as  much  again  for  private  study.  Noth¬ 
ing  must  be  learned  by  heart  which  is  not  previously  un¬ 
derstood.  Corporal  punishment  must  not  be  used.  If  a 
child  cannot  learn,  whose  fault  is  it,  his  or  the  teacher’s  ? 
All  explanations  must  be  as  clear  as  daylight.  The  eye 
should  help  the  ear,  the  hand  the  speech,  so  it  is  well  to 
employ  models,  pictures,  and  black-boards.  If  possible, 
let  children  see  the  use  of  what  they  arc  learning.  It  is 
best  to  have  one  method  for  all  subjects  of  study,  and  that 
all  the  books  should  be  in  the  same  editions.  The  same 
methods  will  make  knowledge  real  and  sterling.  Also  for 
this  purpose  children  must  be  taught  as  far  as  possible, 
not  from  books,  but  from  heaven  and  earth,  oaks  and 
beeches.  The  studies  of  the  whole  life  must  be  so  arranged 
as  to  form  an  encyclopaedia  of  knowledge.  We  must 
learn  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  able  to  communicate  what  wc 
know.  Ask  much,  retain  what  you  are  told,  teach  what 
you  have  retained.  Multa  roga,  retine  docta,  retenta  docc> 
A  man  who  teaches  another  teaches  himself. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


65 


To  learn  shortly  and  quickly  you  must  pursue  the  follow¬ 
ing  methods.  Have  one  teacher  for  each  class  ;  a  teacher 
with  improved  methods  can  teach  a  large  number.  For 
this  purpose  Comenius  recommends  methods  many  of 
which  have  become  familiar  to  us.  (1)  Dividing  the  class 
into  bodies  of  ten,  each  with  a  prefect.  (2)  Teaching 
nothing  that  is  not  heard  and  understood  by  all.  (3)  A 
previous  explanation  of  the  general  subject  of  the  teach¬ 
ing.  (4)  The  teacher  to  be  so  placed  that  he  can  com¬ 
mand  the  whole  class.  (5)  Passing  a  question  down  the 
form  from  one  to  the  other.  (6)  Allowing  the  children 
to  ask  any  questions  when  school  is  over.  (7)  If  no  one 
answers  a  question  to  ask  the  whole  class,  and  to  praise 
the  one  who  answers  right.  It  is  well  to  have  uniform 
school  books  arranged  in  question  and  answer,  with  ex¬ 
tracts  on  the  walls.  Comenius  laid  such  stress  on  the  im¬ 
portance  of  a  carefully-arranged  programme  that  in  Hun¬ 
gary  he  only  received  scholars  once  a  year.  Primers  ex¬ 
pressed  in  short,  simple  language  are  useful.  Combine 
the  teaching  of  things  with  that  of  words,  matter  with 
style,  learning  with  play.  Avoid  teaching  what  is  useless, 
or  matters  of  too  special  a  character. 

Comenius  goes  on  to  describe  at  length  the  methods  of 
teaching  the  sciences  and  the  arts,  languages,  morals  and 
piety.  But  it  will  be  better  to  pass  at  once  to  a  sketch  of 
the  arrangements  of  the  reformed  school.  He  contem¬ 
plates  when  his  system  is  complete  the  entire  banishment 
of  heathen  writers  from  his  curriculum.  For  discipline 
he  adduces  the  example  of  the  sun,  which  gives  us  light 
and  warmth  always,  rain  and  wind  often,  thunder  and 
lightning  seldom.  Comenius  establishes  four  classes  of 
schools  :  (1)  the  mother’s  school  in  every  house  ;  (2)  the 


66 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


national  school  in  every,  parish  ;  (3)  the  gymnasium  in 
every  large  town  ;  (4)  the  university  in  every  country  or 
large  province.  In  the  lower  grade  of  schools  things  are 
to  be  taught  generally  and  in  outline,  and  in  the  higher 
schools  more  in  detail  and  more  completely.  The 
mother’s  school  is  to  cultivate  the  external  senses  ;  the 
national  school,  the  internal  senses,  imagination  and  mem¬ 
ory,  hand  and  tongue  ;  the  gymnasium,  understanding 
and  judgment  ;  the  university,  the  will.  All  children  of 
both  sexes  are  to  attend  the  two  first  schools  ;  the  gym¬ 
nasium  is  for  those  who  are  not  destined  for  manual  em¬ 
ployment  ;  the  university  is  to  train  the  future  teachers 
and  leaders  of  the  community. 

The  mother’s  school  is  to  teach  the  first  beginnings  of 
many  things,  things  quite  simple  in  themselves  which  we 
are  accustomed  to  call  by  very  hard  names.  A  child  in 
its  earliest  infancy  will  learn  the  simplest  notions  of  met¬ 
aphysics  in  the  ideas,  something,  nothing,  it  is,  it  is  not, 
where,  when,  like,  and  unlike  ;  of  physics,  in  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  water,  earth,  air,  fire,  rain,  snow,  ice,  stones, 
iron,  tree,  plant,  etc.  ;  of  optics,  in  the  knowledge  of 
light,  darkness,  shadow,  color,  etc.  ;  of  astronomy,  in  the 
knowledge  of  heaven,  sun,  moon,  stars,  and  their  daily 
motions.  In  the  same  manner  he  will  learn  a  little 
geography,  chronology,  history,  arithmetic,  geometry, 
statics,  mechanics,  dialectics,  grammar,  rhetoric,  the  ait 
of  poetry,  domestic  economy,  a  very  little  politics,  and 
ethics.  Moreover  the  child  in  these  first  six  years  will 
learn  moderation,  cleanliness,  veneration,  obedience,  truth¬ 
fulness,  justice,  love,  with  silence,  patience,  scrviceable- 
ness,  propriety,  and  religion.  Comenius  proposes  to  write 
a  book  for  mothers,  and  a  picture  book  for  the  instruction 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


67 


of  children.  The  national  school  is  to  be  a  school  of  the 
mother  tongue.  It  is  absurd  to  learn  a  foreign  language 
before  yon  know  your  own.  This  school  will  teach  read¬ 
ing,  writing,  arithmetic,  measuring,  singing,  the  Bible, 
history,  and  physical  geography,  and,  lastly,  the  principal 
handicrafts.  The  course  will  be  spread  over  six  years,  and 
be  taught  in  six  classes.  Books  are  to  be  written  for  each 
class,  the  earlier  containing  the  general  principles,  the 
later  the  particulars.  These  books  are  to  be  called  by 
fancy  names  :  the  violet  bed,  the  rose  hedge,  the  grass 
plot.  The  school  hours  are  to  be  four  only,  two  before 
and  two  after  the  midday  meal  ;  the  morning  hours  are 
to  be  devoted  to  the  understanding  and  memory,  the 
afternoon  to  the  practice  of  the  hand  and  voice.  Noth¬ 
ing  new  is  to  be  taught  in  the  afternoon.  The  Latin 
school,  the  next  stage,  is  to  consist  of  six  classes,  and  to 
occupy  the  years  from  twelve  to  eighteen.  The  classes 
are  arranged  in  the  following  order  :  (1)  grammar  ;  (2) 
physics  ;  (3)  mathematics  ;  (4)  ethics  ;  (5)  dialectics  ; 
(6)  rhetoric.  The  sciences  themselves  are  to  be  taught  in 
the  morning,  the  history  of  them  in  the  afternoon.  The 
crown  of  the  whole  system  is  the  university,  in  which  all 
sciences  are  to  be  taught. 

How  striking  and  how  powerful  is  the  reform  of  educa¬ 
tion  here  proposed  !  IIow  much  more  so  must  it  have 
been  in  the  age  of  Comenius  !  Many  of  his  suggestions 
have  become  commonplaces  to  ourselves,  but  many  of 
them  as  we  read  them  pour  a  new  light  upon  our  minds, 
and  seem  to  us  the  expression  of  an  idea  which  has  long 
been  darkly  sensible.  The  more  we  reflect  on  the  method 
of  Comenius,  the  more  shall  we  see  that  it  is  replete  with 
suggestiveness,  and  we  shall  feel  surprised  that  so  much 


68 


educational  theories. 


wisdom  can  have  lain  in  the  path  of  schoolmasters  for  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  that  they  have  never  stooped 
to  avail  themselves  of  its  treasures. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

THE  NATURALISTS - RACELAIS  AND  MONTAIGNE. 

The  kinds  of  education  described  in  the  two  last  chap¬ 
ters  are  educations  of  system.  Their  object  is  to  make 
the  scholar  and  the  man  of  learning,  although  in  one  case 
the  basis  is  clerical,  in  the  other  modern.  Each  of  these 
methods  would  be  severely  criticised  by  the  man  of  the 
world  ;  whether  a  child  were  educated  by  the  humanists 
or  the  realists  it  would  appear  to  men  of  action  that  the 
schools  had  too  much  the  best  of  it.  The  result  in  either 
case  would  rather  be  to  form  the  student  than  the  man 
fitted  to  take  his  part  in  the  battle  of  life.  We  should, 
therefore,  expect  to  find,  side  by  side  with  these  two  di¬ 
rections  of  thought  about  education,  a  third,  the  object 
of  which  was  to  form  the  whole  man,  and  which,  although 
it  did  not  neglect  either  letters  or  sciences,  was  inclined  to 
believe  that  these  might  be  learned  without  a  parade  of 
pedantic  learning,  and  without  interfering  with  the  free 
growth  of  the  man’s  nature.  This  school  of  educational¬ 
ists  may  conveniently  be  called  by  the  name  of  naturalists, 
not  only  because  they  professed  to  follow  nature  as  much 
as  Comenius,  but  because  they  set  before  themselves  as 
the  chief  good  the  development  of  the  entire  nature,  and 
not  merely  the  intellect  or  any  part  of  it.  The  principal 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


G9 


representatives  of  this  school  are  Rabelais  and  Montaigne. 
The  second  of  these  is  more  entirely  a  naturalist  than  the 
first,  but  they  are  closely  connected  together,  and  al¬ 
though  Rabelais  loads  his  scheme  of  ideal  education  with 
useless  learning,  yet  it  is  easy  to  see  that  his  fundamental 
principle  is  the  formation  of  the  character  and  the  training 
of  a  versatile  and  accomplished  gentleman. 

The  attitude  of  Rabelais  toward  the  education  of  his 
time  is  shown  by  his  description  of  the  evil  training  of  his 
hero  Gargantua  before  it  was  reformed  under  his  direction, 
lie  says1  (Book  I.  chap,  xi.),  “  Gargantua  from  three 
years  upward  until  five  was  brought  up  and  instructed  in 
all  convenient  discipline  by  the  commandment  of  his 
father,  and  spent  that  time  like  the  other  little  children  of 
the  country,  that  is,  in  drinking,  eating,  and  sleeping,  in 
eating,  sleeping,  and  drinking,  and  in  sleeping,  drinking, 
and  eating.  About  the  end  of  his  fifth  year  Grandgousier, 
his  father,  became  convinced  from  a  conversation  with 
him  that  his  understanding  did  partake  of  some  divinity, 
and  that  if  he  were  well  taught  and  had  a  fitting  education 
he  would  attain  to  a  supreme  degree  of  wisdom,  ‘  there¬ 
fore  I  will  commit  him  to  some  learned  man  to  have  him 
indoctrinated  according  to  his  capacity,  and  will  spare  no 
cost.  ’  Presently  they  appointed  him  a  great  sophister- 
doctor,  called  Master  Tubal  Ilolofernes,  who  taught  him 
his  A  B  C  so  well,  that  he  could  say  it  by  heart  backward, 
and  about  this  ho  was  five  years  and  three  months.  Then 
read  he  to  him  Dnatus  (a  grammar),  Facetus,  Theodole- 
tus,  and  Alanus,  ‘  De  Parabolis  ’  (who  were  moral  writ- 

1  Rabelais  is  so  little  suited  for  the  reading  of  ordinary  stu¬ 
dents  that  I  have  thought  it  best  to  quote  nearly  all  he  says  about 
education. 


70 


educational  theories. 


ers)  ;  about  this  lie  was  thirteen  years  six  months  and  two 
weeks.  But  you  must  remark  that  in  the  mean  time  he 
did  learn  to  write  in  Gothic  characters,  and  that  he  wrote 
all  his  books — for  the  art  of  printing  was  not  then  in  use 

_ and  did  ordinarily  carry  a  great  pen  and  inkhorn 

weighing  about  seven  thousand  quintals,  etc.  After  that 
he  read  unto  him  the  book  called  ‘  De  Modis  Significandi,’ 
with  the  commentaries  of  Hurtbise,  of  Fascpiin,  of  Trop- 
dieux,  of  Gaulhault,  of  Jehan  le  Veau,  Billonio,  Berlin- 
guandus,  and  others,  wherein  he  spent  more  than  eighteen 
years  and  eleven  months,  and  was  so  well  versed  in  it  that 
to  try  masteries  in  school  disputes  with  his  con-disciples 
he  would  recite  it  by  heart  backward,  and  did  sometimes 
prove  on  his  finger  ends  to  his  mother,  ‘  quod  de  modis 
significandi  non  erat  scientia.  ’  Then  did  he  read  to  him 
the  compost  forknowing  the  age  of  the  moon,  the  seasons 
of  the  year,  and  the  tides  of  the  sea,  on  which  he  spent 
sixteen  years  and  two  months,  and  just  at  this  time  his 
preceptor  died,  in  the  year  1420.  Afterward  he  got  an 
old  coughing  fellow  to  teach  him,  named  Master  Jobelin 
Bride,  who  read  unto  him  Hugutio  Hebrard’s  Grsecism, 
the  Doctrinal  e  (a  Latin  grammar),  the  Partes,  the  Quid 
est,  the  Supplementum,  Marmotret  (an  introduction  to 
the  Bible),  ‘  De  moribus  in  mensa  servandis,’  Seneca, 

4  De  quatuor  vitutibus  cardinalibus, ’  Passavantus  cum 
commento,  a  Dormi  secure  for  the  feast-days,  and  some 
other  of  such  like  mealy  stuff,  by  reading  whereof  he  be¬ 
came  as  wise  as  any  we  ever  since  baked  in  an  oven. 

“  At  last  his  father  perceived  that  indeed  he  studied  hard, 

•  and  that  although  he  spent  all  his  time  in  it  he  did  never¬ 
theless  profit  nothing,  but,  what  is  worse,  grew  thereby 
foolish,  simple,  doted,  and  blockish,  whereof  making  a 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


71 


heavy  regret  to  Don  Philip  of  Marays,  Viceroy  or  Depute 
King  of  Papaligosse,  he  found  that  it  were  better  for  him 
to  learn  nothing  at  all,  than  to  be  taught  such  like  books 
under  such  schoolmasters,  because  their  knowledge  was 
nothing  but  brutishness,  and  their  wisdom  but  blunt,  fop¬ 
pish  toys,  seeming  only  to  bastardize  good  and  noble 
spirits,  and  to  corrupt  all  the  flower  of  youth.  ‘  That  it 
is  so,  take,’  said  he,  ‘  any  young  boy  of  this  time  who 
hath  only  studied  two  years,  if  he  have  not  a  bettei  judg¬ 
ment,  a  better  discourse,  and  that  expressed  in  better 
terms  than  your  son,  with  a  completer  courage  and  civility 
to  all  manner  of  persons,  account  me  forever  hereafter  a 
very  clounch.’  This  pleased  Grandgousier  very  well,  and 
he  commanded  that  it  should  be  done.  At  night,  at  sup¬ 
per,  the  said  Des  Marays  brought  in  a  young  page  of  his 
called  Eudemon,  so  neat,  so  trim,  so  handsome  in  his  ap¬ 
parel,  so  spruce,  with  his  hair  in  so  good  order  and  so 
sweet  and  comely  in  his  behavior,  that  he  had  the  resem¬ 
blance  of  a  little  angel  more  than  of  a  human  creature. 
Then  he  said  to  Grandgousier,  ‘  Do  you  see  this  y  oung 
boy  ?  He  is  not  as  yet  full  twelve  years  old.  Let  us  try, 
if  it  please  you,  what  difference  there  is  between  the 
knowledge  of  the  doting  mateologians  of  old  time  and  the 
young  lads  that  are  now.  ’  The  trial  pleased  Grandgou¬ 
sier,  and  he  commanded  the  page  to  begin.  Then  Eude¬ 
mon,  asking  leave  of  the  Viceroy,  his  master,  so  to  do, 
with  his  cap  in  his  hand,  a  clear  and  open  countenance, 
beautiful  and  ruddy  lips,  his  eyes  steady,  and  his  looks 
fixed  on  Gargantua,  with  a  youthful  modesty,  standing  up 
straight  on  his  feet,  began  very  gracefully  to  commend 
him,  first  for  his  virtue  and  good  manners,  secondly  for 
his  knowledge,  thirdly  for  his  nobility,  fourthly  for  his 


72 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


bodily  accomplishments,  and,  in  the  fifth  place,  most 
sweetly  exhorted  him  to  reverence  his  father  with  all  due 
observancy,  who  was  so  careful  to  have  him  well  brought 
up.  All  this  was  by  him  delivered  with  such  proper  ges¬ 
tures,  such  distinct  pronunciation,  so  pleasant  a  delivery, 
in  such  exquisite  fine  terms  and  so  good  Latin,  that  he 
seemed  either  a  Gracchus,  a  Cicero,  an  ^Emilius,  of  the 
time  past  than  a  youth  of  this  age.  But  all  the  counte¬ 
nance  that  Gargantua  kept  was  that  he  fell  to  crying  like 
a  cow,  and  cast  down  his  face,  hiding  it  with  his  cap,  nor 
could  they  possibly  draw  one  word  from  him,  whereat 
his  father  was  so  grievously  vexed  that  he  would  have 
killed  Master  Jobelin,  but  the  said  Des  Marays  withheld 
him  from  it  by  fair  persuasions,  so  that  length  he  pacified 
his  wrath.”  So  Jobelin  was  paid  his  wages  and  sent 
about  his  business,  and  Grandgousier,  having  consulted 
with  the  Viceroy,  determined  to  choose  for  Gargantua, 
Ponocrates,  the  tutor  of  Eudemon,  and  so  they  set  out 
for  Paris  together. 

“  When  they  first  arrived  at  Paris,  Ponocrates  allowed 
him  to  go  on  his  own  way  in  order  that  he  might  see 
how  he  had  been  brought  up  ty  his  previous  instructor. 
He  found  that  he  awoke  between  eight  and  nine  o’clock, 
spent  a  long  time  tumbling  and  tossing  in  bed,  washed  and 
dressed  himself  untidily,  eat  a  large  breakfast  immedi¬ 
ately  afterward,  went  to  church,  studied  a  paltry  half- 
hour,  eat  again  to  excess,  and  then  played  with  cards  and 
dice,  checkers  and  chessboards.  After  this  he  drank, 
went  to  sleep,  and  drank  again,  then  he  studied  a  little 
and  played.  Shortly  after  followed  supper,  then  more 
games  and  then  bed,  where  he  slept  soundly  till  eight  in 
the  morning.”  When  Ponocrates  knew  Gargantua’s 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


73 


vicious  manner  of  living,  he  resolved  to  bring  him  up  in 
another  kind,  but  for  a  while  he  bore  with  him,  consider¬ 
ing  that  nature  cannot  endure  such  a  change  without  great 
violence  5  so  he  began  by  purging  him  with  Anticyrian 
hellebore,  by  which  medicine  he  cleansed  all  the  alteration 
and  perverse  habitude  of  his  brain.  By  this  means  also 
Ponocrates  made  him  forget  all  that  he  had  learned  un¬ 
der  his  ancient  preceptors.  He  then  began  a  new  method 
of  study,  so  that  he  lost  not  any  one  hour  in  the  day,  but 
employed  all  his  time  in  learning  and  honest  knowledge. 

‘ 1  Gargantua  awaked  about  four  o’clock  in  the  morning. 
While  they  were  rubbing  of  him  there  was  read  unto  him 
some  chapters  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  aloud  and  clearly, 
with  a  pronunciation  fit  for  the  matter.  His  prayers  had 
reference  to  the  purpose  and  argument  of  that  lesson. 
His  master  repeated  to  him  what  had  been  read,  expound¬ 
ing  the  most  obscure  and  difficult  points.  Then  they 
considered  the  face  of  the  sky,  if  it  was  such  as  they  had 
observed  the  night  before,  and  into  what  sign  the  sun  was 
entering,  as  also  the  moon  for  that  day.  Then  he  was 
dressed,  and  the  lessons  of  the  day  before  were  repeated 
to  him.  Then  for  three  good  hours  he  had  a  lecture  read 
unto  him.  Then  they  went  to  play  in  the  fields,  still 
conferring  on  the  subject  of  the  lecture,  most  gallantly  ex¬ 
ercising  their  bodies,  as  they  had  formerly  done  their 
minds.  They  left  off  when  they  were  tired,  and  then  re¬ 
turned  to  dinner.  The  dinner  was  made  an  occasion  for 
teaching  the  nature  of  everything  that  was  served  at  it,  of 
bread,  wine,  water,  salt,  fleshes,  fishes,  fruits,  herbs, 
roots,  and  of  their  dressing,  the  passages  in  ancient 
authors  referring  to  them  being  read  and  learned.  After 
dinner  they  conferred  of  the  lessons  read  in  the  morning, 
6 


74 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


and  then  cards  were  brought  in,  not  to  play,  but  to  learn 
a  thousand  pretty  tricks  and  new  inventions,  which  were 
all  grounded  upon  arithmetic.  By  this  means  he  fell  in 
love  with  that  numerical  science,  and  every  day,  after 
dinner  and  supper,  he  passed  his  time  in  it  as  pleasantly 
as  he  was  wont  to  do  at  cards  and  dice.  And  not  only  in 
that,  but  in  the  other  mathematical  sciences,  as  geometry, 
astronomy,  music,  etc.  For  in  attending  the  digestion  of 
his  food,  they  made  a  thousand  pretty  instruments  and 
geometrical  figures,  and  did  in  some  measure  practise  the 
geometrical  canons.  Then  they  sang  and  played  for  an 
hour.”  And,  “  digestion  finished,  he  betook  himself  to 
his  principal  study  for  three  hours  together  or  more,  as 
well  as  to  repeat  his  matutinal  lectures,  as  to  proceed  in 
the  book  wherein  he  was,  also  to  write  handsomely,  to 
draw  and  form  the  antique  and  Roman  letters.  ”  Then  he 
went  to  the  riding  school  and  practised  every  feat  of  arms 
on  horse  and  on  foot.  The  list  of  bodily  exercises  which 
Gargantua  performed  is  given  with  the  usual  exuberance  of 
Rabelais.  It  comprises  every  exercise  practised  by  mod¬ 
ern  athletes,  and  many  more  besides.  In  returning,  his 
attention  was  directed  to  ‘  ‘  all  the  plants  and  trees,  and  to 
what  is  written  of  them  by  the  ancients.”  Being  come 
to  their  lodging,  while  supper  was  making  ready,  they  re¬ 
peated  certain  passages  of  that  which  had  been  read,  and 
then  sat  down  at  table.  Here  remark  that  his  dinner  was 
sober  and  thrifty,  for  he  did  then  eat  only  to  prevent  the 
gnawings  of  his  stomach,  but  his  supper  was  copious  and 
large.  During  that  repast  was  continued  the  lesson  read 
at  dinner,  as  long  as  they  thought  good  ;  the  rest  was 
spent  in  good  discourse,  learned  and  profitable.  Then, 
after  music  and  games,  they  went  to  bed.  “  When  it 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


75 


wjis  full  night,  before  they  retired  themselves,  they  went 
into  the  most  open  place  of  the  house  to  see  the  face  of 
the  sky,  and  there  beheld  the  comets,  if  any  were,  as  like¬ 
wise  the  figures,  situations,  aspects,  oppositions  and  con¬ 
junctions  of  both  the  fixed  stars  and  planets.  Then,  with 
his  master,  did  he  briefly  recapitulate,  after  the  manner 
of  the  Pythagoreans,  that  which  he  had  read,  seen, 
learned,  done,  and  understood  in  the  whole  course  of  that 
day.  Then  prayed  they  unto  God 'their  Creator,  in  fall¬ 
ing  down  before  Him,  and  strengthening  their  faith 
toward  Him,  and  glorifying  Him  for  His  boundless 
bounty  ;  and,  giving  thanks  unto  Him  for  the  time  that 
was  past,  they  recommended  themselves  to  His  divine 
clemency  for  the  future,  which  being  done,  they  went  to 
bed,  and  betook  themselves  to  their  repose  and  rest.” 
In  rainy  weather  they  stayed  indoors  and  recreated  them¬ 
selves  with  the  “  bottling  up  of  hay,  cleaving  of  wood, 
and  thrashing  sheaves  of  corn  at  the  barn.”  They  visited 
all  kinds  of  trades,  heard  lectures,  pleadings,  and  sermons. 
Once  a  month  they  took  a  holiday  in  the  beautiful,  coun¬ 
try  near  Paris. 

What  is  the  practical  advice  to  be  derived  from  this  ? 
First  a  sensible  tutor  must  be  chosen.  Rabelais  shows  no 
•  favor  to  public  education.  The  hard  work  is  about  six 
hours  a  day.  During  the  morning  hours  of  study  the 
pupil  is  to  be  lectured  to  ;  there  is  no  talk  of  learning  by 
heart.  Great  stress  is  laid  upon  physical  exercise.  Teach¬ 
ing  is  done  by  the  personal  influence  of  the  tutor,  and 
only  subordinately  through  books.  Natural  objects  are 
made  use  of  as  far  as  possible.  The  chief  points  on  which 
Rabelais  insists  have  been  thus  summed  up  by  Arnstadt  : 1 

1  Frangois  Rabelais  und  sein  Traite  d’education.  Leipzig, 
1872. 


76 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


(1)  Teaching  through  the  senses.  (2)  Independence  of 
thought.  (3)  Training  for  practical  life.  (4)  Equal  de¬ 
velopment  of  mind  and  body.  (5)  Gentle  treatment,  and 
improved  methods.  In  Gargantua’s  education  there  is  no 
mention  of  punishment.  Although  b}r  his  insistence  on 
the  importance  of  learning  things,  Rabelais  belongs  to  the 
realists,  yet  we  shall  see  that  he  exercised  a  predominant 
influence  on  Locke  and  Rousseau,  who  are  the  principal 
advocates  of  naturalistic  education. 

Such  were  Rabelais’  methods.  The  end  which  he  pro¬ 
posed  to  himself  to  reach  is  set  forth  in  a  letter  from  Gar- 
gantua  to  his  son  Pantagruel,  which,  although  it  is  pos¬ 
sibly  of  earlier  composition  than  the  passages  we  have 
quoted,  comes  more  properly  after  the  narration  of  Gar¬ 
gantua’s  youth.  “  Although  my  deceased  father  of  hap¬ 
py  memory,  Gran dgousier,  had  used  his  best  endeavors 
to  make  me  profit  in  all  perfection  and  political  knowl¬ 
edge,  and  that  my  labor  and  study  was  fully  correspond¬ 
ent  to,  yea,  and  went  beyond,  his  desire,  nevertheless  the 
time  was  not  so  proper  and  fit  for  learning  as  it  is  at  pres¬ 
ent,  neither  had  I  plenty  of  such  good  masters  as  thou 
hast  had.  For  that  time  was  darksome,  obscured  with 
clouds  of  ignorance,  and  savoring  a  little  of  that  infelicity 
and  calamity  of  the  Goths,  who  had  wherever  they  set 
footing  destroyed  all  good  literature,  which  in  my  age 
hath  by  the  divine  goodness  been  restored  unto  its  former 
light  and  dignity  ;  that  amendment  and  increase  of 
knowledge  that  now  hardly  should  I  be  admitted  to  the 
first  form  of  the  little  grammar  school  boys.  I  say,  I, 
who  in  my  youthful  days  was  and  that  justly  reputed  the 
most  learned  of  my  age.  Now  it  is  that  the  minds  of 
men  are  qualified  with  all  manner  of  discipline,  and  the 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


77 


old  sciences  revived  which  for  many  ages  were  extinct. 
Now  it  is  that  the  learned  languages  are  to  their  pristine 
purity  restored,  namely,  Greek,  without  which  a  man  may 
be  ashamed  to  count  himself  a  scholar,  Hebrew,  Arabic, 
Chaldean,  and  Latin.  Printing  likewise  is  now  in  use,  ' 
so  elegant,  and  so  correct  that  better  cannot  be  imagined, 
although  it  was  found  out  in  my  time  by  a  divine  inspira¬ 
tion,  as  by  a  diabolical  suggestion  on  the  other  side  was 
the  invention  of  ordnance.  All  the  world  is  full  of  most 
knowing  men,  of  most  learned  schoolmasters,  and  vast 
libraries,  and  it  appears  to  me  as  a  truth  that  neither  in 
Plato’s  time,  nor  Cicero’s,  nor  Papinian’s,  there  was  ever 
such  conveniency  for  studying  as  we  see  at  this  day  there 
is.  Nor  must  any  adventure  to  come  in  public  or  present 
himself  in  company  that  hath  not  been  pretty  well  pol¬ 
ished  in  the  shop  of  Minerva.  I  see  robbers,  hangmen, 
freebooters,  tapsters,  cobblers,  and  such  like,  of  the  very 
rubbish  of  the  people,  more  learned  now  than  the  doctors 
and  preachers  were  in  my  time.  .  .  .  The  very  women 
and  children  have  aspired  to  this  praise  and  celestial  man¬ 
ner  of  good  learning.  .  .  .  Wherefore,  my  son,  I  admon¬ 
ish  thee  to  employ  thy  youth  to  profit  as  well  as  thou 
canst,  both  in  thy  studies  and  in  virtue. 

il  I  intend  and  will  have  it  so  that  thou  learn  the  lan¬ 
guages  perfectly,  first  of  all  the  Greek,  as  Quintilian  will 
have  it,  secondly  the  Latin,  and  then  the  Hebrew  for  the 
Holy  Scriptures’  sake,  and  then  the  Chaldee  and  Arabic 
likewise,  and  that  thou  frame  thy  style  in  Greek  after 
the  manner  of  Plato,  in  Latin  after  that  of  Cicero.  Let 
there  be  no  history  which  thou  shalt  not  have  ready  in 
thy  memory,  unto  the  prosecuting  of  which  design  books 
of  cosmography  will  be  very  conducible,  and  help  thee 


78 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


much.  Of  the  liberal  arts  of  geometry,  arithmetic,  and 
music,  I  gave  thee  some  taste  when  thou  wast  yet  little 
and  not  above  five  or  six  years  old.  Proceed  further  in 
them  and  learn  the  remainder  if  thou  canst.  As  for 
astronomy,  study  all  the  rules  thereof.  Let  pass  never¬ 
theless  the  divining  and  judicial  astronomy  and  the  art 
of  Lullius,  as  being  nothing  else  but  plain  abuses  and 
vanities.  As  for  the  civil  law,  of  that  I  would  have  thee 
to  know  the  texts  by  heart,  and  then  to  compare  them 
with  philosophy.  Now  in  the  matter  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  works  of  nature,  I  would  have  thee  to  study  that 
exactly  ;  that  so  there  be  no  sea,  river,  nor  fountain  of 
which  thou  dost  not  know  the  fishes,  all  the  fowls  of  the 
air,  all  the  several  kinds  of  shrubs  and  trees  whether  in 
forests  or  orchards,  all  the  sorts  of  herbs  and  flowers  that 
grow  on  the  ground,  all  the  various  metals  that  are  hid 
within  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  together  with  all  the  di¬ 
versity  of  precious  stones  that  are  to  be  seen  in  the  orient 
and  south  parts  of  the  world.  Let  nothing  of  all  these 
be  hidden  from  thee.  Then  fail  not  most  carefully  to 
peruse  the  books  of  the  Greek,  Arabian,  and  Latin  phy¬ 
sicians,  not  despising  the  Talmudists  and  Cabalists,  and 
by  frequent  anatomies  get  the  perfect  knowledge  of  that 
other  world  called  the  microcosm,  which  is  man.  And 
at  some  of  the  hours  of  the  day  apply  thy  mind  to  the 
study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  first,  in  Greek,  the  New 
Testament  with  the  Epistles  of  the  Apostles,  and  then  the 
Old  Testament  in  Hebrew.  In  brief  let  me  see  thee  an 
abyss  and  bottomless  pit  of  knowledge,  for  from  hence¬ 
forth  as  thou  growest  great  and  becometh  a  man,  thou 
must  part  from  this  tranquillity  and  rest  of  study,  thou 
must  learn  chivalry,  warfare,  and  the  exercises  of  the  field, 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


'<p.  t  \ 


the  better  thereby  to  defend  my  house  and  our  friends, 
and  to  succor  and  protect  them  at  all  their  needs  against 
the  invasions  and  assaults  of  evil  doers.”  This  letter  is 
very  properly  dated  from  Utopia.  It  is  a  mixture  of  jest 
and  earnest,  and  in  it  Rabelais  may  be  seen  “  laughing 
in  his  easy  chair”  at  the  polymaths  of  his  age.  If  the 
dates  allowed  it  might  be  considered  as  a  satire  on  Mil¬ 
ton’s  Tractate. 

The  second  great  vindicator  of  naturalistic  education, 
Montaigne,  is  more  outspoken  and  more  consistent.  One 
of  his  longest  essays  is  entitled  “  On  the  Education  of 
Children,”  and  is  addressed  to  Madame  Diane  de  Foix, 
Countess  of  Guerson.  In  other  essays  he  touches  on  the 
same  topic  ;  in  the  essay  on  “  pedantry,”  in  that  on 
“  anger,”  in  that  on  “  books,”  in  that  on  “  the  affections 
of  fathers  to  their  children.”  Although  his  precepts  are 
not  systematic,  and  are  thrown  out  rather  as  hints  for  re¬ 
flection,  yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  exercised  a  very 
important  influence  both  upon  Locke  and  Rousseau. 
Like  Rabelais  he  was  profoundly  dissatisfied  with  the 
pedantry  of  his  time.  “  To  what  use  serves  learning  if 
the  understanding  be  away.”  He  says  of  the  scholars  of 
the  age,  “  Whosoever  shall  narrowly  pry  into  and 
thoroughly  sift  this  sort  of  people,  wherewith  the  world 
is  so  pestered,  will,  as  I  have  done,  find  that  for  the  most 
part  they  neither  understand  others  nor  themselves,  and 
that  their  memories  are  full  enough  it  is  true,  but  the 
judgment  totally  devoid  and  empty.”  The  dialectic  of 
that  age  stuffed  the  heads  of  its  pupils  full  of  barren 
knowledge,  ill  digested,  which  weighed  down  the  mind 
without  developing  it.  Philosophy  had  hardened  into  a 
number  of  dry  formulae  which  were  to  be  learned  by  hearty 


80 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


and  as  Montaigne  says,  “  S^avoir  par  coeur  n’est  pas  s$a- 
voir.  ”  To  learn  by  rote  is  no  true  knowledge.  He  is 
particularly  alive  to  the  danger  of  useless  erudition. 
“  Too  much  learning  stifles  the  soul  just  as  plants  are 
stifled  by  too  much  moisture,  and  lamps  by  too  much  oil. 
Our  pedants  plunder  knowledge  from  books  and  carry  it 
on  the  tip  of  their  lips,  just  as  birds  carry  seeds  to  feed 
their  young.  The  cares  and  expense  our  parents  are  at  in 
our  education  point  at  nothing  but  to  furnish  our  heads 
with  knowledge  ;  but  not  a  word  of  judgment  or  virtue. 
We  only  toil  and  labor  to  stuff  the  memory,  but  leave  the 
conscience  and  understanding  unfurnished  and  void.” 
The  object  of  education  in  Montaigne’s  view  must  be  to 
form  the  man.  Before  we  are  lawyers,  doctors,  mer¬ 
chants,  and  professors,  we  must  be  men.  He  tells  a  story 
how,  going  one  day  to  Orleans,  he  met  two  pedants 
travelling  toward  Bordeaux  about  fifty  paces  distant  from 
one  another,  and  a  good  wTay  further  behind  them  he  dis¬ 
covered  a  troop  of  horse  with  a  gentleman  in  the  head  of 
them,  namely  the  Comte  de  Rochefoucauld.  One  of  his 
people  inquired  of  the  foremost  of  these  Dominies  who 
that  gentleman  was  that  came  after  him,  who,  thinking 
he  meant  his  companion,  pleasantly  answered,  “  He  is 
not  a  gentleman,  sire,  he  is  a  grammarian,  and  I  am  a 
logician.”  Our  object,  says  Montaigne,  is  to  breed  not 
a  grammarian  or  a  logician,  but  a  complete  gentleman. 

For  this  purpose,  the  first  thing  is  to  find  a  good  tutor, 
because  upon  the  choice  of  him  depends  the  whole  man¬ 
ner  of  your  education.  He  should  rather  have  an  elegant 
than  a  learned  head,  and  his  manners  and  his  judgment 
are  of  more  importance  than  his  reading.  The  duty  of  the 
tutor  will  be  to  study  the  disposition  of  his  pupil,  yet  this 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


81 


should  not  be  carried  too  far  ;  “  they  ought  to  be  ele¬ 
mented  in  the  best  and  most  advantageous  studies,  with¬ 
out  taking  too  much  notice  of,  or  being  too  superstitious 
in,  those  light  prognostics  they  give  of  themselves  in  their 
tender  years.”  The  tutor  is  “not  to  force  knowledge 
into  the  pupil’s  ears  as  into  a  funnel,  but  is  to  put  his 
capacity  to  the  test,  permitting  his  pupil  himself  to  taste 
and  relish  things,  and  of  himself  to  choose  and  discern 
them,  sometimes  opening  the  way  to  him  and  sometimes 
making  him  to  break  the  ice  himself  ;  that  is,  I  would  not 
leave  him  alone  to  invent  and  speak,  but  that  he  should 
also  hear  his  pupil  speak  in  turn.”  This  cannot  be  done 
in  large  schools,  where  masters  are  expected  with  one  and 
the  same  teaching  to  instruct  several  boys  of  so  different 
and  unequal  capacities.  “  At  this  rate  it  is  no  wonder  if, 
in  the  multitude  of  scholars,  there  are  not  found  above 
two  or  three  who  bring  away  any  good  account  of  their 
time  and  discipline.  In  examining  the  pupil,  judge  of 
the  profit  he  has  made  not  by  the  testimony  of  his  memory 
but  by  that  of  his  understanding.  Let  him  make  him  put 
what  he  hath  learned  into  a  hundred  several  forms,  and 
accommodate  it  to  so  many  several  subjects,  to  see  if  he 
yet  rightly  comprehend  it  and  have  made  it  his  own.  Let 
him  make  him  examine  and  thoroughly  sift  everything 
he  reads,  and  lodge  nothing  in  his  fancy  upon  simple 
authority  and  upon  trust.  That  which  a  man  rightly 
understands  he  is  the  free  disposer  of  at  his  own  full  lib- 
erty,  without  any  regard  to  the  author,  whence  he  had  it, 
or  fumbling  over  the  leaves  of  his  book.” 

Montaigne  recommends  as  means  of  education  conver¬ 
sation  with  men,  and  travel  into  foreign  countries,  u  not 
to  learn  useless  minutiae  of  antiquity,  but  to  be  able  chiefly 


82 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


to  give  an  account  of  the  humors,  manners,  customs,  and 
laws  of  those  nations  where  he  has  been.  ”  A  boy  should 
be  sent  abroad  very  young,  and  into  those  neighboring 
nations  whose  tongue  is  most  differing  from  his  own.  He 
advises  a  hardiness  of  bringing  up.  Mothers  are  too 
tender,  and  do  not  correct  their  children  sufficiently,  or 
allow  them  to  undergo  the  hardships  necessary  for  their 
training  ;  “  they  would  not  endure  to  see  them  return  all 
dust  and  sweat  from  their  exercise,  to  drink  cold  water 
when  they  are  hot,  nor  see  them  mount  an  unruly  horse, 
nor  take  a  foil  in  hand  against  a  rude  fencer,  or  so  much 
as  to  discharge  a  carbine,  and  yet  there  is  no  remedy. 
Whoever  will  wish  a  boy  to  be  good  for  anything  when 
he  comes  to  be  a  man  must  by  no  means  spare  him,  even 
when  so  young,  and  must  very  often  transgress  the  rules 
of  physic.”  It  is  not  enough  to  fortify  his  soul,  you  are 
also  to  make  his  sinews  strong.  Our  very  exercises  and 
recreations — running,  wrestling,  music,  dancing,  hunting, 
riding,  and  fencing — will  have  to  be  a  good  part  of  our 
study.  “  I  would  have  his  outward  fashion  and  mien, 
and  the  disposition  of  his  limbs,  formed  at  the  same  time 
with  his  mind.  ’Tis  not  a  soul,  ’tis  not  a  body  that  we 
are  training  up,  but  a  man,  and  we  ought  not  to  divide 
him.  In  this  intercourse  with  men,  the  pupil  is  not  to 
become  forward  and  impertinent,  but  to  cultivate  silence 
and  modesty.  He  is  to  argue  with  self-restraint,  and  to 
learn  to  acquiesce,  and  submit  to  truth  as  soon  as  he  dis¬ 
covers  it,  either  in  his  opponent’s  argument,  or  on  better 
consideration  of  his  own.  He  is  also  to  have  implanted 
in  him  the  honest  curiosity  of  being  inquisitive  after  every¬ 
thing,  and  whatever  there  is  of  singular  and  rare  near  the 
place  where  he  shall  reside,  he  shall  go  and  see  it — a  fine 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOEIES. 


83 


house,  a  delicate  fountain,  an  eminent  man,  the  place 
where  a  battle  has  been  anciently  fought,  and  the  passages 
of  Caesar  and  Charlemagne.  ’  ’ 

The  main  study  for  a  gentleman  is  the  intelligent  study 
of  history.  The  manners,  revenues,  and  alliances  of 
princes,  the  great  and  heroic  souls  of  former  and  better 
ages  ;  “  not  the  date  of  the  fall  of  Carthage,  but  the  be¬ 
havior  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio  ;  not  where  Marcellus  died, 
so  much  as  why  he  died  there  ;  not  so  much  the  narrative 
part,  as  the  business  of  history.  To  some  history  is  a 
mere  grammar  study,  to  others  it  is  the  very  anatomy  of 
philosophy,  by  which  the  most  secret  and  abstruse  parts 
of  our  nature  are  penetrated  into.  Whoever  shall  repre¬ 
sent  to  his  fancy  that  great  image  of  our  mother  Nature 
portrayed  in  her  full  majesty  and  lustre,  whoever  shall 
observe  himself  in  that  figure,  and  not  himself  but  a  whole 
kingdom,  no  bigger  than  the  least  touch  or  prick  of  a 
pencil  in  comparison  of  the  whole,  that  man  alone  is  able 
to  value  things  according  to  their  true  estimate  and  gran¬ 
deur.  The  great  world  is  the  mirror  wherein  we  are  to 
behold  ourselves,  to  be  able  to  know  ourselves  as  we  ousdit 
to  do.  I  would  have  this  to  be  the  book  my  young  gen¬ 
tleman  should  study  with  the  most  attention.  ”  After  hav¬ 
ing  taught  him  what  will  make  him  more  wise  and  good, 
you  may  then  entertain  him  with  the  elements  of  logic, 
physics,  geometry,  and  rhetoric,  and  the  science  which  he 
shall  then  himself  most  incline  to,  his  judgment  being  be¬ 
forehand  formed  and  fit  to  choose,  he  will  quickly  make 
his  own.  “  The  way  of  instructing  him  ought  to  be 
sometimes  by  discourse,  and  sometimes  by  reading,. 
Sometimes  his  tutor  shall  put  the  author  himself  which  he 
shall  think  most  profitable  for  him  into  his  hands,  and 


84 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


sometimes  only  the  manner  and  substance  of  it,  and  if  lie 
himself  be  not  conversant  enough  in  books  to  turn  to  all 
the  fine  discourses  the  book  contains,  then  may  some  man 
of  learning  be  joined  to  him,  that  upon  every  occasion 
shall  supply  him  with  what  he  desires  and  stands  in  need 
of  to  recommend  to  his  pupil.”  Above  all,  education 
should  be  cheerful.  The  pupil  is  not  to  be  imprisoned, 
or  made  a  slave  to  his  book.  He  is  not  to  be  given  up  to 
the  morosity  or  melancholic  humor  of  a  sour,  ill-natured 
pedant.  His  spirit  is  not  to  be  cowed  and  subdued  by 
applying  him  to  the  rack,  and  tormenting  him  fourteen 
or  fifteen  hours  a  day,  and  so  make  a  pack-horse  of  him. 
“  How  many  have  I  seen  in  my  time  totally  brutified  by 
an  immoderate  thirst  after  knowledge.” 

Montaigne  speaks  with  horror  of  the  severity  of  the 
colleges  of  his  time.  “  ’Tis  the  house  of  correction  for 
imprisoned  youth.  Do  but  come  in  when  they  are  about 
their  lessons,  and  you  shall  hear  nothing  but  the  outcry  of 
boys  under  execution,  with  the  thundering  noise  of  their 
pedagogues  drunk  with  fury.”  George  Buchanan,  one 
of  Montaigne’s  preceptors,  has  left  us  a  similar  picture. 

‘  ‘  Away  with  this  violence  !  away  with  this  compulsion  ! 
than  which  I  certainly  believe  nothing  more  dulls  and  de¬ 
generates  a  well-descended  nature.  If  you  would  have 
him  apprehend  shame  and  chastisement,  do  not  harden 
him  to  them.  Inure  him  to  heat  and  cold,  to  wind  and 
sun,  and  to  dangers  that  he  ought  to  despise.  Wean  him 
from  all  effeminacy  and  delicacy  in  clothes  and  lodging, 
eating  and  drinking.  Accustom  him  to  everything,  that 
he  may  not  be  a  Sir  Paris  and  carpet-knight,  but  a 
sinewy,  hardy,  and  vigorous  young  man.  I  have  ever, 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


85 


from  a  child  to  the  age  I  now  am,  been  of  this  opinion, 
and  am  still  constant  to  it.  ’  ’ 

From  this  sketch  of  Montaigne’s  opinions,  it  will  be 
easily  seen  how  he  found  a  follower  in  Locke,  and  how 
his  lessons  passed  from  Locke  into  onr  English  schools. 
But  we  must  remember  that  he  naturally  emphasizes  the 
side  of  education  which  in  his  own  day  was  much  neg¬ 
lected.  If  he  wishes  his  pupil  not  to  grow  up  a  pedant, 
he  does  not  wish  him  to  grow  up  an  ignoramus.  He  com¬ 
mends  the  care  taken  by  his  father  with  his  own  education, 
and  laments  the  time  he  wasted  at  the  college  of  Guienne. 
In  our  own  day  it  will  do  little  harm  to  obey  his  precepts 
of  practical  education,  if  we  also  take  care  to  grasp  his 
conception  of  the  intellectual  furniture  with  which  a 
statesman  should  be  equipped. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ENGLISH  HUMANISTS  AND  REALISTS - ROGER  ASCHAM  AND 

JOHN  MILTON. 

In  the  three  preceding  chapters  we  have  given  an  ac¬ 
count  of  the  three  principal  schools  of  educationists,  which 
continue  to  divide  us  by  their  controversies  even  at  the 
present  day  :  the  Humanists,  the  Realists,  and  the  Natu¬ 
ralists.  But  the  examples  chosen  to  illustrate  them  have 
been  drawn  entirely  from  foreign  countries.  The  first 
two  schools  have  been  represented  by  Germans,  the  last 
by  Frenchmen.  In  this  chapter  and  the  following  one  we 


86 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


propose  to  give  an  account  of  the  English  representatives 
of  those  different  schools  of  thought,  Ascham,  Milton, 
and  Locke.  The  importance  of  the  first  has  probably 
been  overrated,  the  opinions  of  the  second  are  imperfectly 
known,  while  the  third  has  given  a  powerful  bias  to 
naturalistic  education,  both  in  England  and  on  the  Conti¬ 
nent  for  the  last  two  hundred  years. 

Roger  Ascham  was  born  in  1516.  He  entered  St. 
John’s  College,  Cambridge,  in  the  year  1530,  a  well- 
grounded  boy  of  fourteen.  Stimulated  by  the  seven 
years  activity  of  Erasmus,  Cambridge  was  then  in  a  very 
flourishing  condition,  and  was  regarded  as  the  principal 
place  of  study  for  the  classical  languages.  Ascham  threw 
himself  vigorously  into  the  study  of  Greek.  He  lectured 
publicly  on  this  language,  and  succeeded  Sir  John  Cheke 
as  public  orator.  His  “  Toxophilus,  or  Praise  of 
Archery,”  written  at  the. age  of  thirty,  is  one  of  the  first 
works  composed  in  pure  English.  This  work  attracted 
the  notice  of  the  Court,  and  from  the  time  of  its  publica¬ 
tion  till  his  death  in  1568,  Ascham  was,  with  few  inter¬ 
missions,  employed,  either  about  the  Court  or  on  foreign 
missions.  He  was  Greek  tutor  to  Queen  Elizabeth.  He 
had  taught  her  Latin  when  princess,  and  was  her  constant 
and  favored  companion.  His  views  on  education  are  con¬ 
tained  in  a  book  called  the  “  Scholemaster.  ”  1 

His  account  of  the  occasion  of  its  composition  is  very 
interesting.  He  says  that  when  the  Great  Plague  was  at 
London  in  the  year  1563,  the  Court  lay  at  Windsor,  and 
it  happened  on  December  10th  that  Ascham  and  others 

1  The  best  edition  of  the  “  Scholemaster”  is  that  by  Profes¬ 
sor  Mayor  of  Cambridge.  Milton’s  tractate  should  be  reprinted 
in  a  separate  form. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


87 


of  the  household  were  dining  together  in  Sir  William 
Cecil’s  chamber.  “  Not  long  after  our  sitting  down,  i  I 
have  strange  news  brought  me,  ’  saitli  Mr.  Secretary,  ‘  this 
morning,  that  divers  scholars  of  Eton  ran  away  from  the 
school  for  fear  of  a  beating.’  Whereupon  Mr.  Secretary 
took  occasion  to  wish  that  some  discretion  were  in  many 
schoolmasters  in  using  correction  than  commonly  there  is, 
who  many  times  punish  rather  the  weakness  of  nature  than 
the  fault  of  the  scholar,  whereby  many  scholars,  that  might 
else  prove  well,  be  driven  to  hate  learning  before  they 
know  what  learning  meanetli  ;  and  so  are  made  willing  to 
forsake  their  book,  and  to  be  willing  to  be  put  to  any 
other  kind  of  living.  On  this  a  discussion  arose.  Mr. 
Peter,  as  one  somewhat  severe  of  nature,  said  plainly  that 
the  rod  only  was  the  sword  that  must  keep  the  school  in 
obedience,  and  the  scholars  in  good  order.  Mr.  Wotton 
(not  to  be  confounded  with  the  famous  Provost  of  Eton), 

*  a  man  mild  of  nature,  with  soft  voice  and  few  words,’ 
inclined  to  Mr.  Secretary’s  judgment,  and  said,  ‘  In  mine 
opinion,  the  school-house  should  be  indeed,  as  it  is  called 
in  name,  the  house  of  play  and  pleasure  and  not  of  fear 
and  bondage,  and  therefore  if  a  rod  carry  the  fear  of  a 
sword,  it  is  not  marvel  if  those  that  be  fearful  of  nature 
choose  rather  to  forsake  the  play  than  to  stand  always 
within  the  fear  of  a  sword  in  a  fond  man’s  handling.’ 
Mr.  Mason,  after  his  manner,  was  very  merry  with  both 
parties,  pleasantly  playing,  both  with  the  shrewd  touches 
of  many  curst  boys,  and  with  the  small  discretion  of  many 
lewd  schoolmasters.  Mr.  Hadden  was  fully  of  Mr.  Peter’s 
opinion,  and  said  that  the  best  schoolmaster  of  our  time 
was  the  greatest  beater,  and  named  the  person  (Nicholas 
Udal,  Head-master  of  Eton).  ‘Though,’  quoth  I,  ‘it 


88 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOEIES. 


was  his  good  fortune  to  send  from  his  school  to  the  Uni¬ 
versity  one  of  the  best  scholars,  indeed,  of  all  our  time, 
yet  wise  men  do  think  that  came  to  pass  rather  by  the 
great  towardness  of  the  scholar,  than  by  the  great  beating 
of  the  master,  and  whether  this  be  true  or  no,  you  your¬ 
self  are  best  witness.  ’  In  this  conversation  Sir  Richard 
Sackville  said  nothing  at  all.  ’ 7  But  after  dinner  Ascham 
went  up  to  read  with  the  Queen’s  Majesty.  11  We  read 
then  together,  in  the  Greek  tongue,  as  I  well  remember, 
that  noble  oration  of  Demosthenes  against  HCschines  for 
his  false  dealing  in  his  embassage  to  King  Philip  of  Mace- 
donie.  Sir  Richard  Sackville  came  up  soon  after,  and 
finding  me  in  Her  Majesty’s  privy  chamber,  he  took  me 
by  the  hand,  and,  carrying  me  to  a  window,  said  that  he 
would  not  for  a  good  deal  of  money  have  been  this  day 
absent  from  dinner,  that  he  lamented  his  own  beating  in 
his  youth,  and  determined  to  adopt  a  different  method 
with  his  grandson.”  As  Ascham  had  a  son  much  of  his 
grandson  s  age,  he  asked  him  to  choose  a  schoolmaster 
who  should  educate  the  two  boys  together,  and  that  he 
would  pay  for  both.  They  then  conversed  on  the  general 
subject  of  education  for  some  time,  and  Sackville  asked 
Ascham  to  put  down  his  views  in  a  book.  Ascham  was 
suddenly  called  to  the  Queen.  The  night  following  he 
slept  but  little,  and  he  determined  to  write  a  little  treatise 
for  the  new  year,  but  the  work  rose  daily  higher  and 
wider  than  he  expected.  The  book  was  not  finished  for 
some  little  time  afterward. 

The  first  part  of  the  work  is  entitled  u  The  bringing  up 
of  Youth,”  and  the  main  lesson  in  it  is  that  gentleness  is 
to  be  used  in  education  in  preference  to  severity.  In  the 
second  book,  entitled  “  The  ready  way  to  the  Latin 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


80 


Tongue,”  Ascliam  explains  liis  method  at  length.  First 
the  simple  rules  of  accidence  are  to  be  learned  in  the  gram¬ 
mar.  Then  Sturm’s  Epistles  of  Cicero  is  to  be  taken  as 
a  text-book.  The  master  is  to  follow  in  some  respects  the 
method  of  Ratich.  He  is  to  explain  the  meaning  of  each 
epistle,  to  construe  it  to  the  child  in  English,  to  parse  it 
over  perfectly.  This  done,  the  child  is  to  construe  and 
parse  it  over  again  until  he  knows  it.  Then  he  is  to  take 
a  paper  book  and  write  out  by  himself  the  translation  of 
the  lesson  in  English  ;  then,  when  this  has  been  corrected 
by  the  master,  he  is  after  the  interval  of  an  hour  to 
translate  the  English  into  Latin  back  again.  The  trans¬ 
lation  is  to  be  compared  by  the  master  with  Cicero’s  orig¬ 
inal.  He  is  not  to  chide,  but  to  say,  “  TulJy  would  have 
used  such  a  word,  not  this  ;  Tully  would  have  placed  this 
word  here,  not  there  ;  would  have  used  this  case,  this 
number,  this  person,  this  degree,  this  gender  ;  he  would 
have  used  this  word,  this  mood,  this  tense,  this  simple 
rather  than  this  compound  ;  this  adverb  here,  not  there  ; 
he  would  have  ended  the  sentence  with  this  verb,  not 
Avith  that  noun  or  participle.”  In  this  way  the  scholar 
is  to  go  through  the  first  book  of  Sturm’s  selected  Epis¬ 
tles,  and  a  good  piece  of  a  comedy  of  Terence.  But  he 
is  to  speak  no  Latin,  for,  as  Cicero  says,  loquendo  male 
loqui  discunt.  In  proceeding  the  scholar  is  to  have  longer 
lessons,  he  is  to  learn  the  rudiments  of  style,  the  meaning 
of  proprium  (literal),  of  translatum  (metaphorical),  of 
synonymum  (synonymous),  of  diversum  (differing  in  sig¬ 
nification  in  certain  respects),  contraria  (opposite  in  sig¬ 
nification  to  each  other.)  He  is  to  classify  the  Avords  in 
order  in  a  third  paper  book.  In  this  way  he  is  to  Avork 

through  the  best  Avritings  of  Tully,  Terence,  Ca3sar,  and 

7 


90 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


Livy.  Then  he  is  to  translate  into  Latin  some  piece  of 
English  given  him  by  the  teacher.  Ascham  proceeds  to 
pass  in  view  other  exercises  in  style  which  were  in  vogue 
in  his  time,  and  shows  their  inferiority  to  that  which  he 
recommends,  but  the  book  remains  unfinished.  We  see 
in  this  that  Ascham  scarcely  goes  beyond  his  friend  and 
master,  John  Sturm.  His  main  object  is  the  teaching  of 
the  Latin  and  Greek  tongues.  He  is  little  else  than  a 
mere  schoolmaster,  careful  and  accurate  in  that  capacity, 
but  with  no  extended  views  or  aims. 

Very  different  in  scope  and  spirit  is  the  tractate  of  John 
Milton.  It  is  written  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Samuel  Hartlib,  the  son  of  a  Polish  merchant  who  resided 
mainly  in  London.  Lie  was  a  friend  of  every  new  dis¬ 
covery  which  seemed  likely  to  advance  the  happiness  of 
the  human  race.  He  took  great  interest  in  science,  in  the 
union  of  the  Protestant  Churches,  and  above  all  in  edu¬ 
cation.  He  published,  in  1651,  “  Propositions  for  the 
Erecting  of  a  College  of  Husbandry  Learning,”  or,  in 
modern  phraseology,  an  agricultural  college,  in  which  he 
proposed  that  apprentices,  received  at  the  age  of  fifteen, 
should  after  seven  years’  instruction  receive  money  to  set 
themselves  up  in  a  farm,  and  a  yearly  payment  for  four 
years.  Also,  in  1647,  Sir  William  Petty,  the  founder  of 
the  Lansdowne  family,  wrote  to  Mr.  Hartlib  a  letter  con¬ 
taining  a  scheme  for  a  trade  or  industrial  school,  a  grand 
plan  which  we  may  possibly  see  realized  in  our  own  day 
by  the  establishment  of  a  technological  university  in  Lon¬ 
don.  Sir  William  Petty  says,  “  All  apprentices  might 
learn  the  theory  of  their  trades  before  they  are  bound  to 
a  master,  and  consequently  be  exempted  from  the  tedium 
of  a  seven  years’  bondage,  and  having  spent  but  about 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


91 


three  years  with  a  master,  may  spend  the  other  four  in 
travelling  to  learn  breeding  and  the  perfection  of  their 
trades.”  To  the  same  category  belongs  Cowley’s  scheme 
of  a  philosophical  college,  published  in  1661,  the  school 
part  of  which  bears  so  much  resemblance  to  Milton’s 
scheme  as  to  make  it  certain  that  Cowley  in  writing  it 
must  have  had  the  former  in  his  mind.  Although  these 
plans  were  never  carried  out,  being  indeed  impossible  in 
the  troubled  times  of  the  Commonwealth  and  ill  suited  to 
the  frivolous  temper  of  the  Restoration,  they  show  us 
plainly  enough  the  desire  which  was  fermenting  in  men’s 
minds  for  a  better  and  more  liberal  education.  Had  they 
met  with  more  success  the  English  might  have  been  by 
this  time  the  best  educated  nation  in  Europe. 

It  was  natural  that  Ilartlib  should  have  been  especially 
attracted  by  the  writings  of  Comenius,  the  great  Moravian 
teacher,  who  announced  to  his  age  a  discovery  as  impor¬ 
tant  as  that  of  Bacon,  heralded  with  the  same  confidence, 
and  promising  as  great  results.  We  have  become  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  principles  of  Comenius  in  a  previous 
chapter.  We  have  seen  that  one  of  the  most  important 
points  on  which  he  insists  is  the  simultaneous  teaching  of 
words  and  things.  Endless  time  had  been  spent  on  the 
mere  routine  of  language — why  not  at  least  attempt  to 
utilize  this  labor,  and  while  the  drudgery  of  words  and 
sentences  is  proceeding,  take  care  that  what  is  learned  is 
worth  remembering  for  itself.  We  shall  find  these  same 
lines  of  thought  running  through  Milton’s  tractate. 
Writing  to  Mr.  Hartlib,  he  proceeds  to  set  down  “  that 
voluntary  idea,  which  hath  long  in  silence  presented  itself 
to  me,  of  a  better  education  in  time  and  comprehension 
far  more  large,  and  yet  of  time  far  shorter  and  of  attain- 


92 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


ment  far  more  certain  than  hath  yet  been  in  practice.” 
He  asks  his  friend  “  to  accept  these  few  observations 
which  have  flowered  off,  and  are  as  it  were  the  burnish- 
ings  of  many  studious  and  contemplative  years  altogether 
spent  in  the  search  of  civil  and  religious  knowledge,  and 
since  it  pleased  you  so  well  in  the  relating,  I  here  give  you 
them  to  dispose  of.” 

Milton  begins  by  the  principle  that  the  end  of  learning 
is  to  repair  the  sins  of  our  first  parents  by  regaining  to 
know  God  aright  5  and,  because  God  can  only  be  known 
in  His  works,  we  must  by  the  knowledge  of  sensible 
things  arrive  gradually  at  the  contemplation  of  the  in¬ 
sensible  and  invisible.  Now  we  must  begin  with  lan¬ 
guage  5  but  language  is  only  the  instrument  conveying  to 
us  things  useful  to  be  known.  No  man  can  be  called 
learned  who  does  not  know  the  solid  things  in  languages 
as  well  as  the  languages  themselves.  Here  we  see 
asserted  the  important  principle  that  words  and  things 
must  go  together,  and  that  things  are  more  important 
than  words.  The  next  principle  with  which  we  are 
familiar  in  the  writings  of  Comenius  and  others,  is  that 
we  must  proceed  from  the  easier  to  the  more  difficult. 
We  are  warned  against  u  a  preposterous  exaction,  forcing 
the  empty  wits  of  children  to  compose  themes,  verses,  and 
orations,  which  are  the  acts  of  the  ripest  judgment.” 
Matters  were  indeed  far  worse  in  Milton’s  time  than  they 
are  now  in  this  respect.  We  have  to  a  great  extent  thrown 
off  the  tyranny  of  the  grammarians  and  the  schoolmen. 
l>ut  we  are  still  guilty  of  the  “  error  of  misspending  our 
prime  youth  at  the  schools  and  universities  either  in  learn¬ 
ing  mere  words  or  such  things  chiefly  as  were  better  un¬ 
learned.  ’  W  e  have  still  as  much  need  as  ever  that  some 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


93 


one  should  “  point  us  out  the  right  path  of  a  virtuous  and 
noble  education,  so  laborious  indeed  at  first  ascent,  but 
else  so  smooth,  so  green,  and  so  full  of  goodly  prospects 
and  melodious  sounds  on  every  side  that  the  harp  of 
Orpheus  was  not  more  charming.  ’  ’ 

Milton  defines  what  he  means  by  education  in  the  fol¬ 
lowing  words  :  “I  call  a  complete  and  generous  education 
that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly,  skilfully,  and 
magnanimously  all  the  offices,  both  public  and  private, 
of  peace  and  war.”  To  attain  this  object,  first  a  spacious 
house  and  grounds  about  it  is  to  be  found,  fit  for  an 
academy  to  lodge  about  130  students  under  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  one  head.  This  is  to  be  both  school  and  uni¬ 
versity,  to  give  a  complete  education  from  twelve  to 
twenty-one,  not  needing  a  removal  to  any  other  place  of 
learning.  There  is  something  strange  in  the  idea  of 
welding  together  the  school  and  university,  but  it  was 
more  consonant  to  the  opinions  and  practice  of  Milton’s 
own  age.  He  himself  spent  at  the  university  the  years 
between  fourteen  and  twenty-one  ;  the  ordinary  length  of 
the  academical  course  being  seven  years  from  entrance  to 
the  degree  of  M.  A.  So  that  his  proposal  is  not  so  much 
to  suppress  the  university  as  the  school.  Doubtless  he 
saw  little  hope  of  reforming  a  large  body  like  the  uni¬ 
versity,  or  weaning  it  from  the  useless  brabblements  of 
the  Aristotelian  philosophy,  whereas  by  a  private  establish¬ 
ment  such  as  he  describes  the  reform  might  be  begun  at 
once.  We  must  remember  also  that  the  age  of  entrance 
at  public  schools  is  now  what  the  age  of  entrance  at  the 
university  was  in  Milton’s  time  ;  while  many  of  our  pub¬ 
lic  school  boys  do  not  go  to  the  university  at  all.  The 
plan  advocated  by  Milton  is  in  this  respect  carried  out  in 


94 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


France,  and  pupils  graduate  directly  from  the  lycee,  only 
attending  afterward  a  special  school  of  law  or  physic. 
Such  institutions  as  Owens  College  at  Manchester  are 
doing  precisely  the  work  which  Milton  recommends. 

Milton  divides  his  scheme  of  education  into  three  parts  : 
(1)  Studies  ;  (2)  Exercise  ;  (3)  Diet.  In  order  to  do  jus¬ 
tice  to  his  method  we  must  remember  that  he  does  not 
conceive  of  any  education  possible  except  through  the 
Latin  or  Greek  tongues.  To  make  his  precepts  useful  to 
us  we  must  tear  aside  this  veil,  and  go  as  deeply  as  we 
can  into  the  principles  which  underlie  his  teaching,  and 
infer  what  he  would  have  recommended  to  us  under  a 
different  state  of  things.  In  those  days  Latin  was  the 
language  of  the  whole  learned  world.  A  man  ignorant  of 
Latin  would  have  no  access  to  the  best  books  of  the  age, 
and  no  opportunity  of  communicating  his  thoughts  to  the 
world  at  large.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  he  should 
recommend  Latin  grammar  to  be  taught  first,  but  with  the 
Italian  pronunciation  of  the  vowels  such  as  is  rapidly  mak¬ 
ing  its  way  among  us  at  the  present  day.  But  here  at 
the  outset  the  means  are  subordinate  to  the  end.  Lan¬ 
guage  is  to  he  the  vehicle  of  moral  teaching  for  the 
formation  of  a  lofty  character.  The  Pinax  of  Cebes, 
which  as  a  school-book  is  coming  now  again  into  favor, 
and  which  advocates  moral  principles  in  simple  language  ; 
the  moral  works  of  Plutarch,  one  of  the  purest  and  most 
high-minded  of  the  ancients,  and  the  best  dialogues  of 
Plato  are  to  be  read  to  the  youthful  scholars.  For  here 
Milton  says,  “  the  main  rule  and  ground-work  will  be  to 
tempt  them  with  such  lectures  and  explanations  upon 
every  opportunity  as  may  lead  and  draw  them  in  willing 
obedience,  inflamed  with  the  study  of  learning  and  the 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


95 


admiration  of  virtue,  cheered  up  with  high  hope  of  liv¬ 
ing  to  be  brave  men  and  worthy  patriots,  dear  to  God 
and  famous  to  all  ages.  ’  ’  Milton  emphasizes  the  cardinal 
truth  of  education,  that  it  resides  not  in  the  mechanical 
perfection  of  study  and  routine,  but  in  the  spirit  of  the 
teacher  working  in  the  heart  of  the  pupil.  The  first  step 
in  education  is  to  make  the  pupils  “  despise  and  scorn  all 
their  childish  and  ill-taught  qualities,  to  delight  in  manly 
and  liberal  exercises,  to  infuse  into  their  young  hearts  such 
an  ingenuous  and  noble  ardor  as  would  not  fail  to  make 
many  of  them  renowned  and  matchless  men.  ’ ’  Together 
with  their  Latin  exercises,  arithmetic,  and  geometry,  are 
to  be  taught  playing,  “  as  the  old  manner  was,”  and  re¬ 
ligion  is  to  occupy  them  before  going  to  bed.  Thus  ends 
the  first  stage  of  their  education.  It  should  be  remarked 
that  the  Greek  authors,  Cebes,  Plutarch,  and  Plato,  are 
to  be  read,  of  course  in  Latin  translations,  and  that  they 
are  to  be  “  read  to”  the  boys  probably  in  the  manner  rec¬ 
ommended  by  Ratich  and  Ascham.  As  soon  as  they  are 
masters  of  the  rudiments  of  Latin  grammar  they  are  to 
read  those  treatises,  such  as  Cato,  Yarro,  and  Columella, 
which  are  concerned  with  agriculture.  The  object  of  this 
is  not  only  to  teach  them  Latin  but  to  incite  and  enable 
them  to  improve  the  tillage  of  their  country,  to  remove 
the  bad  soil  and  to  remedy  the  waste  that  is  made  of 
good.  Then  after  learning  the  use  of  globes  and  maps, 
and  the  outlines  of  geography,  ancient  and  modern,  they 
are  to  read  some  compendious  method  of  natural  philos¬ 
ophy.  After  this  they  are  to  begin  Greek,  but  the 
authors  read  have  reference  to  natural  science,  which  is  at 
this  period  the  staple  of  their  education.  When  in  their 
mathematical  studies  they  have  reached  trigonometry,  that 


96 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


will  introduce  them  to  fortification,  architecture,  engineer- 

•  7  7  O  . 

mg,  and  navigation.  They  are  to  proceed  in  the  study 
of  nature  as  far  as  anatomy,  and  they  are  to  acquire  the 
principles  of  medicine  that  they  may  know  the  tempers, 
the  humors,  the  seasons,  and  how  to  manage  a  crudity.  No 
advocate  of  scientific  education  could  have  sketched  out 
a  more  comprehensive  plan  of  study  in  these  departments. 

Then  follows  a  suggestion  which  has  often  been  made 
by  educational  theorists,  but  not  often  tried.  There  are 
some  minds  which  are  inaccessible  to  purely  abstract 
knowledge  ;  learning  takes  no  hold  on  them  unless  it 
is  connected  with  doing,  and  it  has  occurred  to  many 
that,  if  to  the  whole  curriculum  of  science  there  could 
be  added  a  curriculum  of  practice,  few  pupils  would 
be  found  incapable  of  receiving  intellectual  education. 
We  find  this  feature  in  the  Psedagogic  Province  of 
Goethe’s  “  Wilhelm  Meister,”  and  the  few  occasions  on 
which  it  has  been  tried  give  encouragement  for  its  further 
use.  Milton  accepts  it  without  reserve.  ‘  ‘  To  set  for¬ 
ward  all  these  proceedings  in  nature  and  mathematics, 
what  hinders  but  they  may  procure,  as  oft  as  shall  be 
needful,  the  helpful  experiences  of  hunters,  fowlers,  fish¬ 
ermen,  shepherds,  gardeners,  apothecaries,  and,  in  the 
other  sciences,  architects,  engineers,  anatomists,  who, 
doubtless,  would  be  ready,  some  for  reward  and  some  to 
favor  such  a  hopeful  seminary.  And  this  will  give  them 
such  a  real  tincture  of  natural  knowledge  as  they  will  never 
forget,  but  daily  augment  with  delight.” 

These  rudimentary  studies,  classical,  mathematical,  and 
practical,  may  be  supposed  to  have  occupied  them  to  the 
age  of  sixteen,  when  they  are  for  the  first  time  to  be  in¬ 
troduced  to  graver  and  harder  topics.  “  As  they  begin 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


97 


to  acquire  character,  and  to  reason  on  the  difference  be¬ 
tween  good  and  evil,  there  will  be  required  a  constant  and 
sound  indoctrinating  to  set  them  right  and  firm,  instruct¬ 
ing  them  more  amply  in  the  knowledge  of  virtue  and  the 
hatred  of  vice.  For  this  purpose  their  young  and  pliant 
affections  are  to  be  led  through  the  moral  works  of  Plato, 
Xenophon,  Cicero,  and  Plutarch,  but  in  their  nightward 
studies  they  are  to  submit  to  the  more  determinate  sen¬ 
tence  of  Holy  Writ.”  Thus  they  will  have  traversed  the 
circle  of  ethical  teaching.  During  this  and  the  preceding 
stage,  poetry  is  to  be  read  as  an  amusement,  and  as  a 
g;olden  fringe  to  the  practice  of  serious  labor.  “  And 
either  now,”  Milton  remarks,  “  or  before  this,  they  may 
have  easily  learned,  at  any  odd  hour,  the  Italian  tongue.” 
This  sentence  has  often  been  quoted  to  show  how  vision¬ 
ary  and  baseless  Milton’s  idea  of  education  was.  But  ex¬ 
perience  is  here  in  his  favor,  and  those  who  have  tried 
the  experiment  are  well  aware  that  Italian  may  easily  be 
learned  by  intelligent  and  studious  boys  with  little  expen¬ 
diture  of  time  or  interruption  of  other  studies.  Ethics  is 
to  be  succeeded  by  politics.  After  the  foundation  of  their 
character  and  principles,  then  is  to  follow"  their  education 
as  citizens.  They  are  to  learn  “  the  beginning,  end,  and 
reason  of  political  societies  ;  that  they  may  not  in  a  dan¬ 
gerous  fit  of  the  Commonwealth  be  such  poor,  shaken, 
uncertain  reeds,  of  such  a  tottering  conscience  as  many  of 
our  good  councillors  have  of  late  showed  themselves,  but 
steadfast  pillars  of  the  State.”  The  study  of  law  is  to 
come  next,  including  all  the  Roman  edicts,  and  tables 
with  Justinian,  and  also  the  Saxon  law,  and  common  law 
of  England,  and  the  statutes  of  the  realm.  “-Sundays 
also  and  every  evening  may  be  now  understandingly  spent 


98 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


in  the  highest  matters  of  theology,  and  Church  history, 
ancient  and  modern.’7  By  the  age  of  eighteen  Hebrew 
will  have  been  learned,  and  possibly  Syrian  and  Chaldaic. 
Tragedy  will  be  read  and  learned  in  close  connection  with 
political  oratory.  “  These,  if  got  by  memory  and  sol¬ 
emnly  pronounced  with  right  accent  and  grace,  as  might 
be  taught,  would  endue  them  even  with  the  spirit  and 
vigor  of  Demosthenes  or  Cicero,  Euripides  or  Sophocles.” 
When  their  minds  are  truly  stored  with  this  wealth  of 
learning,  they  are  at  length  to  acquire  the  art  of  expres¬ 
sion,  both  in  writing  and  in  speech.  ‘  ‘  From  henceforth, 
and  not  till  now,  will  be  the  right  season  for  forming  them 
to  be  able  writers  and  composers  in  every  excellent  mat¬ 
ter,  when  they  shall  be  thus  fraught  with  an  universal  in¬ 
sight  into  things.”  Thus  ends  this  magnificent  and  com¬ 
prehensive  scheme.  “  These  are  the  studies  wherein  our 
noble  and  our  gentle  youth’  ’  (observe  that  Milton  is  think¬ 
ing  of  the  education  of  a  gentleman)  “  ought  to  bestow 
their  time  in  a  disciplinary  way  from  twelve  to  one-and- 
twenty,  unless  they  rely  more  upon  their  ancestors  dead 
than  upon  themselves  living.  In  the  which  methodical 
course  it  is  so  supposed  they  must  proceed  by  the  steady 
pace  of  learning  onward,  as  in  convenient  times  to  retire 
back  into  the  middle  ward,  and  sometimes  into  the  rear 
of  what  they  have  been  taught,  until  they  have  confirmed 
and  solidly  united  the  whole  body  of  their  perfected 
knowledge  like  the  last  embattling  of  a  Roman  legion.” 

One  of  the  main  hopes  of  the  improvement  of  education 
lies  in  adopting  the  truth  that  manly  and  serious  studies 
are  capable  of  being  handled  and  mastered  by  intelligent 
schoolboys.  We  might  have  hoped  that  the  publication 
of  John  Stuart  Mill’s  “  Autobiography”  would  have 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


99 


led  to  the  imitation  of  the  method  by  which  he  gained  a 
start  of  twenty  years  over  his  contemporaries  in  the  race 
of  life.  It  seems  to  have  produced  the  contrary  effect. 
But  no  one  can  read  Mill’s  letter  to  Sir  S.  Bentham  with¬ 
out  acknowledging  that  he  had  done  at  the  age  of  thirteen 
nearly  as  much  as  Milton  expected  from  his  matured  stu¬ 
dents.  Mill  was  reading  Thucydides,  Euclid,  and  algebra 
at  eight,  Pindar  and  conic  sections  at  nine,  trigonometry 
at  ten,  Aristotle  at  eleven,  optics  and  fluxions  at  twelve, 
logic  and  political  economy  at  thirteen.  He  had  also  by 
this  time  written  two  histories  and  a  tragedy.  There  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  studies  thus  early  acquired 
did  not  form  an  integral  part  of  his  mind,'  or  that  when 
writing  his  standard  works  on  logic  and  political  economy, 
or  sketching  a  complete  scheme  of  education  at  St.  An¬ 
drew’s,  he  was  not  using  the  knowledge  which  lie  had 
acquired  in  these  very  tender  years. 

The  physical  exercise  proposed  by  Milton  for  his  stu¬ 
dents  is  of  an  equally  practical  character,  and  differs 
widely  from  the  laborious  toiling  at  unproductive  games, 
which  is  the  practice  of  our  own  day.  With  him  amuse¬ 
ment,  emulation,  bodily  skill,  the  cheerfulness  of  bright 
companionship,  are  all  pressed  into  the  service  of  practi¬ 
cal  life.  Dinner  is  taken  at  noon,  and  about  an  hour  or 
an  hour  and  a  half  before  that  meal  is  to  be  allowed  them 
for  exercise,  and  rest  afterward.  The  first  exercise 
recommended  is  u  the  use  of  the  sword,  to  guard  and  to 
strike  safely  with  edge  or  point.  This  will  keep  them 
healthy,  nimble,  strong,  and  well  in  breath,  is  also  the 
likeliest  means  to  make  them  grow  large  and  tall,  and  to 
inspire  them  with  a  gallant  and  fearless  courage.”  They 
are  also  to  be  practised  in  “  all  the  locks  and  gripes  of 


100 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


wrestling.  ’  ’  After  about  an  hour  of  such  exercise,  during 
the  needful  repose  which  precedes  their  mid-day  meal, 
they  may  “  with  profit  and  delight  be  taken  up  in  re¬ 
cruiting  and  composing  their  travailed  spirits  with  the 
solemn  and  divine  harmonies  of  music,  heard  or  learned, 
either  while  the  skilful  organist  plies  his  grave  and  fan¬ 
cied  descant  in  lofty  fugues,  or  the  whole  symphony  with 
artful  and  unimaginable  touches  adorn  and  grace  the  well- 
studied  chords  of  some  choice  composer.  Sometimes  the 
lute  or  soft  organ-stop,  waiting  on  elegant  voices  either 
to  religious,  martial,  or  civil  ditties,  which,  if  wise  men 
and  prophets  be  not  extremely  out,  have  a  great  power 
over  dispositions  and  manners,  to  smooth  and  make  them 
gentle  from  rustic  harshness  and  distempered  passions.  ’  ’ 
The  same  rest,  with  the  same  accompaniment,  is  to  fol¬ 
low  after  food.  About  two  hours  before  supper,  which  I 
suppose  would  be  at  about  seven  or  eight  o’clock,  “  they 
are  by  a  sudden  alarum  or  watchword  to  be  called  out  to 
their  military  motions  under  sky  or  covert,  according  to 
the  season,  as  was  the  Roman  wont,  first  on  foot,  then,  as 
their  age  permits,  on  horseback,  to  all  the  arts  of  cavalry  ; 
that  having  in  sport,  but  with  much  exertion  and  daily 
muster,  served  out  the  rudiments  of  their  soldiership  in 
all  the  skill  of  encamping,  marching,  embattling,  forti¬ 
fying,  besieging  and  battering,  with  all  the  help  of  ancient 
and  modern  stratagems,  tactics,  and  warlike  maxims,  they 
may,  as  it  were,  out  of  a  long  war  come  forth  renowned 
and  perfect  commanders  in  the  service  of  their  country.” 
Milton  had  good  reason  to  desire  the  formation  of  the 
nucleus  of  a  citizen  army,  and  much  service  might  be  ren¬ 
dered  by  our  school  rifle  corps  if  they  were  organized  on 
a  more  serious  and  laborious  model. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


101 


In  Milton’s  institution  the  vacations  were  intended  to 
be  short,  but  the  time  was  not  all  to  be  spent  in  work 
without  a  break.  “  In  those  vernal  seasons  of  the  year, 
when  the  air  is  calm  and  pleasant,  it  were  an  injury  and 
sullenness  against  nature  not  to  go  out  and  see  her  riches, 
and  partake  in  her  rejoicing  with  heaven  and  earth.  I 
should  not  therefore  be  a  persuader  to  them  of  studying 
much  then,  after  two  or  three  years,  that  they  have  well 
laid  their  grounds,  but  to  ride  out  in  companies  with 
prudent  and  staid  guides  into  all  quarters  of  the  land, 
learning  and  observing  all  places  of  strength,  all  commod¬ 
ities  of  building  and  of  soil  for  towns  and  villages,  har¬ 
bors  and  ports  of  trade  ;  sometimes  taking  sea  as  far  as 
our  navy,  to  learn  also  what  they  can  in  the  practical 
knowledge  of  sailing  and  sea  fights.  These  journeys 
would  try  all  their  peculiarities  of  nature,  and  if  there 
were  any  such  excellence  among  them  would  fetch  it  out, 
and  give  it  fair  opportunities  to  advance  itself  by.” 
‘  ‘  This,  ’  ’  he  says,  ‘ 4  will  be  much  better  than  asking  Mon- 
sieurs  of  Paris  to  take  our  hopeful  youths  into  their  slight 
and  prodigal  custody,  and  send  them  back  transformed 
into  mimics,  apes,  and  kickshoes.  ”  Travelling  abroad  is 
to  be  deferred  to  the  age  of  three-and-twenty,  when  they 
will  be  better  able  to  profit  by  it.  In  Milton’s  time  com¬ 
munication  was  far  more  difficult  than  it  is  now.  Not 
only  was  a  short  trip  on  the  Continent  out  of  the  question, 
but  even  travelling  in  England  was  laborious  and  slow. 
Yet  even  in  these  days  our  young  statesmen  are  pro¬ 
foundly  ignorant  of  the  country  to  which  they  belong, 
and  a  knowledge  of  its  character  and  resources  should  be 
the  first  foundation  of  sound  political  wisdom.  In  our 
own  day  we  might  go  so  far  as  to  regard  a  knowledge  of 


102 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOEIES. 


the  whole  world  as  the  fitting  conclusion  to  a  liberal  edu¬ 
cation,  and  Milton,  if  he  were  writing  now,  might  recom¬ 
mend  an  educational  cruise  such  as  has  been  attempted  in 
America  and  France.  Of  diet,  his  last  division,  Milton 
tells  us  nothing  except  that  it  should  be  in  the  same  house, 
and  that  it  should  be  plain,  healthful,  and  moderate. 

In  conclusion  Milton  anticipates  some  of  the  objections 
which  might  be  raised  against  his  plan,  on  the  score  of 
its  impracticability,  or  its  aiming  at  too  high  a  standard. 
He  admits  that  a  scheme  of  this  kind  cannot  be  car¬ 
ried  out  except  under  the  most  favorable  conditions,  with 
teachers  and  scholars  above  the  average.  “  I  believe,” 
he  says,  “  that  this  is  not  a  bow  for  every  man  to  shoot 
in,  that  counts  himself  a  teacher  ;  but  will  require  sinews 
almost  equal  to  those  which  Homer  gave  Ulysses  ;  yet  I 
am  withal  persuaded  that  it  may  prove  much  more  easy 
in  the  essay  than  it  now  seems  at  a  distance,  and  much 
more  illustrious,  howbeit,  not  more  difficult  than  I  im¬ 
agine,  and  that  imagination  presents  me  with  nothing  else, 
but  very  happy  and  very  possible,  according  to  best 
wishes,  if  God  have  so  decreed,  and  this  age  have  spirit 
and  capacity  enough  to  apprehend.” 


CHAPTER’  VII. 

LOCKE. 

The  ideas  on  education  first  mooted  in  an  irregular  and 
jesting  manner  by  Rabelais,  then  developed  and  made 
current  in  good  society  by  Montaigne,  were  popularized 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


103 


in  England  by  Locke,  and  through  him  exercised  a 
mighty  influence  over  Europe  in  the  Emile  of  Rousseau. 
Although  Locke’s  “  Thoughts  on  Education”  1  are  prob¬ 
ably  little  read  in  the  present  day,  they  have  had  a  power¬ 
ful  effect  on  the  attitude  of  English  society  toward  edu¬ 
cation,  and,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  they  determine 
the  character  of  our  most  characteristic  educational  insti¬ 
tution,  the  English  public  school.  These  schools,  on  their 
intellectual  sides  the  creation  of  John  Sturm  and  the 
Jesuits,  have  been  deeply  penetrated  by  the  spirit  of  nat¬ 
uralism,  but  we  imagine  that  few  of  those  who  defend  the 
fresh  air  and  healthy  exercise,  the  self-government  and  the 
suvoir  faire  which  our  public  schools  provide  with  such 
success,  have  any  idea  that  the  principles  which  they  sup¬ 
port  from  prejudice  have  their  origin  in  the  theories  of 
two  such  philosophers  as  Locke  and  Rousseau. 

The  similarity  between  Locke  and  Montaigne  is  very 
apparent,  and  it  will  be  well  to  examine  it  more  closely. 
Both  recommend  education  by  a  tutor  rather  than  in  a 
public  school.  In  comparing  the  advantages  of  the  home 
and  the  school  Locke  says,  “  I  confess  both  sides  have 
their  inconveniences.  Being  abroad  ’ tis  true  will  make 
him  bolder,  and  better  able  to  bustle  and  shift  among 
boys  of  his  own  age,  and  the  emulation  of  school-fellows 
often  puts  life  and  industry  into  young  lads.  But  till 
you  can  find  a  school  wherein  it  is  possible  for  the  master 
to  look  after  the  manners  of  his  scholars,  and  can  show 
as  great  effects  of  his  care  of  forming  their  minds  to  vir¬ 
tue  and  their  carriage  to  good  breeding,  you  must  confess 

1  The  best  edition  of  Locke’s  “Thoughts  on  Education”  is 
that  by  the  Rev.  R.  H.  Quick,  published  at  the  Cambridge 
University  Press,  1880. 


104 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


that  you  have  a  strange  value  for  words  when  .  .  .  you 
think  it  worth  while  to  hazard  your  son’s  innocence  and 
virtue  for  a  little  Greek  and  Latin.  For  as  for  that  bold¬ 
ness  and  spirit  which  lads  get  among  their  playfellows 
at  school,  it  has  ordinarily  such  a  mixture  of  rudeness  and 
ill-turned  confidence  that  their  misbecoming  and  disingen¬ 
uous  ways  of  shifting  in  the  world  must  be  unlearned,  and 
all  the  tincture  washed  out  again,  to  make  way  for  better 
principles  and  such  manners  as  make  a  truly  worthy 
man.”  Great  care  is  to  be  taken  in  the  choice  of  a  tutor, 
and  no  expense  is  to  be  spared.  “  He  that  at  any  rate 
procures  his  child  a  good  mind,  well-principled,  tem¬ 
pered  to  virtue  and  usefulness,  and  adorned  with  civility 
and  good-breeding,  makes  a  better  purchase  for  him  than 
if  he  laid  out  the  money  for  an  addition  of  more  earth  to 
his  former  acres.”  The  consideration  of  charge  ought 
not  to  deter  those  who  are  able.  Spare  no  care  nor  cost 
to  get  a  good  tutor.  If  you  get  a  good  one  you  will  never 
repent  the  charge,  but  will  always  have  the  satisfaction  to 
think  it  the  money  of  all  others  the  best  laid  out.  Most 
parents  only  look  for  a  sober  man  and  a  scholar,  but 
“  when  such  an  one  has  emptied  out  into  his  pupil  all  the 
Latin  and  logic  he  has  brought  from  the  university,  will 
that  furniture  make  him  a  fine  gentleman  ?”  “To  form 
the  young  gentleman  as  he  should  be,  ’tis  fit  that  the  gov¬ 
ernor  should  himself  be  well-bred.  This  is  an  art  not  to  be 
learned  from  books.  Nothing  can  give  it  but  good  com¬ 
pany  and  observation  joined  together.”  “The  tutor, 
therefore,  ought  in  the  first  place  to  be  well-bred,  and  a 
young  gentleman  who  gets  this  one  qualification  from  his 
governor  sets  out  with  great  advantage,  and  will  find  that 
this  one  accomplishment  will  more  open  his  way  to  him, 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOEIES. 


105 


get  him  more  friends,  and  carry  him  further  in  the  world 
than  all  the  hard  words  or  real  knowledge  he  has  got  from 
the  liberal  arts  or  his  tutor’s  learned  encyclopaedia.” 

Locke  goes  on  to  demand  more  than  this  from  his  ideal 
tutor,  always  in  the  spirit  of  Montaigne.  “  Besides  being 
well-bred,  the  tutor  should  know  the  world  well  ;  the 
ways,  the  humors,  the  follies,  the  cheats,  the  faults  of  the 
age  he  is  fallen  into,  and  particularly  of  the  country  he 
lives  in.”  The  neglect  of  this  often  leads  to  the  excesses 
into  which  young  men  run  as  soon  as  they  are  their  own 
masters,  “  having  been  bred  up  in  a  great  ignorance  of 
what  the  world  truly  is,  and  finding  it  a  quite  other  thing 
when  they  come  into  it  than  what  they  were  taught  it 
should  be.”  “He  that  thinks  not  this  of  more  moment 
to  his  son,  and  for  which  he  more  needs  a  governor,  than 
the  languages  and  learned  sciences,  forgets  of  how  much 
more  use  it  is  to  judge  rightly  of  men,  and  manage  his 
affairs  wisely  with  them,  than  to  speak  Greek  and  Latin 
or  argue  in  mood  and  figure,  or  to  have  his  head  filled 
with  the  abstruse  speculations  of  natural  philosophy  or 
metaphysics.”  “  A  great  part  of  the  learning  now  in 
fashion  in  the  schools  of  Europe,  and  that  ordinarily  goes 
into  the  round  of  education,  a  gentleman  may  in  a  good 
measure  be  unfurnished  with  without  any  great  disparage¬ 
ment  to  himself,  or  prejudice  to  his  affairs.  But  prudence 
and  good  breeding  are  in  all  the  stations  and  occurrences 
of  life  necessary.  ”  “Latin  and  learning  make  all  the 
noise,  and  the  main  stress  is  laid  upon  his  proficiency  in 
things  a  great  part  of  which  belong  not  to  a  gentleman’s 
calling,  which  is  to  have  the  knowledge  of  a  man  of  busi¬ 
ness,  a  carriage  suitable  to  his  rank,  and  to  be  eminent 

and  useful  to  his  country  according  to  his  station.” 

8 


106 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


“  The  great  work  of  a  governor  is  to  fashion  the  carriage 
and  form  the  mind,  to  settle  in  his  pupil  good  habits  and 
the  principles  of  virtue  and  wisdom,  to  give  him  by  little 
and  little  a  view  of  mankind,  and  work  him  into  a  love 
and  imitation  of  what  is  excellent  and  praiseworthy,  and 
in  the  prosecution  of  it  to  give  him  vigor,  activity,  and 
industry.  The  studies  which  he  sets  him  upon  are  but  as 
it  were  the  exercises  of  his  faculties,  and  employment  of 
his  time  to  keep  him  from  sauntering  and  idleness,  to 
teach  him  application,  and  accustom  him  to  take  pains, 
and  to  give  him  some  little  taste  of  what  his  own  industry 
must  perfect.”  We  see  from  these  passages  that  Locke 
like  Montaigne  laid  greater  stress  on  the  formation  of  the 
character  and  of  the  personality  of  the  man  than  on  the 
culture  of  the  intellect.  “  The  great  principle  and  foun¬ 
dation  of  all  virtue  and  worth  is  placed  in  this  ;  that  a 
man  is  able  to  deny  himself  of  his  own  desires,  cross  his 
own  inclinations,  and  purely  follow  what  reason  directs 
as  best,  though  the  appetite  lean  the  other  way.  ’  ’ 

Locke  also  agrees  with  Montaigne  in  recommending 
travel  at  an  early  age,  or  else  he  would  defer  it  with 
Rousseau  until  the  education  is  completed,  and  the  young 
man  is  fit  to  travel  alone.  He  is  strongly  opposed  to  the 
practice,  then  common  in  England,  of  sending  lads  abroad 
at  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  when  they  were  exposed 
to  the  severest  temptations,  and  were  least  able  to  resist 
them.  “  The  first  season  to  get  foreign  languages,  and 
form  the  tongue  to  their  true  accent,  I  should  think 
should  be  from  seven  to  fourteen  or  sixteen  ;  and  then  a 
tutor  with  them  is  useful  and  necessary,  who  may  with 
these  languages  teach  them  other  things.  ”  “  The  time  I 

should  think  fittest  for  a  young  gentleman  to  be  sent 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


107 


abroad  would  bo  either  when  he  is  younger  under  a  tutor, 
whom  he  might  be  the  better  for,  or  when  he  is  some 
years  older,  without  a  governor,  when  he  is  of  age  to  gov¬ 
ern  himself,  and  make  observations  of  what  he  finds  in 
other  countries  worthy  his  notice,  and  that  might  be  of 
use  to  him  after  his  return  ;  and  when,  too,  being  thor¬ 
oughly  acquainted  with  the  laws  and  fashions,  the  natural 
and  moral  advantages  and  defects  of  his  own  country,  he 
has  something  to  exchange  with  those  abroad,  from  whose 
conversation  he  hoped  to  reap  any  knowledge.  Locke 
complains  that  the  chief  drawback  to  this  plan  is  the 
custom  of  early  marriages  among  people  of  rank  and 
fortune.  Ilis  own  pupil,  the  second  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
was  married  at  the  age  of  seventeen. 

The  most  convenient  way  of  giving  an  account  of  so 
well  known  and  accessible  a  book  will  be  to  show  in  what 
respects  Locke  agreed  with  the  rest  of  the  naturalistic 
school.  First,  in  respect  to  the  methods  of  instruction. 
Books  are  not  the  most  important  instruments  of  learn¬ 
ing.  We  must  educate  the  senses,  and  through  the 
senses  train  the  intellect.  The  child  is  to  be  taught  to 
read  as  soon  as  he  can  talk,  but  the  learning  is  to  be  made 
as  easy  to  him  as  possible.  Basedow  had  biscuits  baked 
in  the  form  of  letters,  and  children  were  allowed  to  eat 
any  letter  they  could  tell  the  name  of.  Similarly  Locke 
recommends  an  ivory  ball  of  twenty-four  or  twenty-five 
sides,  with  the  different  letters  pasted  upon  them,  begin¬ 
ning  with  four  or  even  two.  “  To  keep  up  his  eagerness 
to  it,  let  him  think  it  a  game  belonging  to  those  above 
him,  and  when  by  this  means  he  knows  the  letters,  by 
changing  them  into  syllables  he  may  learn  to  lead  without 
knowing  how  he  did  so,  and  never  have  any  chiding  or 


108 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


trouble  about  it,  nor  fall  out  with  boohs  because  of  the 
hard  usage  and  vexation  they  have  caused  him.  ’  ’  When 
he  has  learned  to  read  he  is  to  have  an  easy,  pleasant  book 
put  into  his  hand,  such  as  “  Hfsop’s  Fables,”  with  pic¬ 
tures,  or  “  Reynard  the  Fox.”  “  As  soon  as  he  begins 
to  spell,  as  many  pictures  of  animals  should  be  got  him  as 
can  be  found,  with  the  printed  names  to  them,  which  at 
the  same  time  will  invite  him  to  read,  and  afford  him 
matter  of  inquiry  and  knowledge.”  We  are  here  re¬ 
minded  of  Pestalozzi  teaching  his  poor  children  by  the 
old  tapestry  in  the  castle  of  Burgdorf.  He  is  to  learn 
writing,  drawing,  and  shorthand,  and  the  first  language 
which  he  begins  after  his  own  is  French.  Not  till  he  can 
read  and  speak  French  well  is  he  to  begin  Latin.  Locke 
agrees  with  Montaigne  that  Latin  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  a  gentleman,  and  in  the  method  of  learning  which  he 
recommends  he  follows  what  Montaigne  tells  us  of  his 
own  childhood.  We  are  not  to  begin  with  grammar.  If 
possible  a  man  is  to  be  found  wrho  speaks  good  Latin,  and 
is  never  to  allow  his  pupil  to  speak  or  read  anything  else. 
This  would  be  the  true  and  genuine  way.  “  Wdiereas  a 
child  might  without  pains  or  chiding  get  a  language  which 
others  are  wont  to  be  whipped  for  at  school  six  or  seven 
years  together.”  At  the  same  time  he  might,  as  Milton 
recommends,  be  instructed  in  several  sciences,  and  learn 
a  good  deal  of  geography,  astronomy,  chronology,  anat¬ 
omy,  and  some  history,  “  and  all  other  parts  of  the 
knowledge  of  things  that  fall  under  the  senses,  and  re¬ 
quire  little  more  than  memory.  For  there  if  we  would 
take  the  true  way,  our  knowledge  should  begin,  and  in 
these  things  be  laid  the  foundation,  and  not  in  the  ab¬ 
stract  notions  of  logic  and  metaphysics,  which  are  fitter 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


109 


to  amuse  than  inform  the  understanding  in  its  first  setting 
out  toward  knowledge.”  If  a  man  cannot  be  got  who 
speaks  good  Latin,  then  we  are  to  adopt  the  plan  of  having 
literal  translations,  printed  word  for  word,  and  line  for 
line.  This  method  has  been  very  generally  adopted  since 
Locke’s  time,  and  usually  bears  the  name  of  Hamilton. 
Locke  shows  the  same  confidence  in  the  employment  of 
the  senses  in  another  passage.  “  The  globes  must  be 
studied,  and  that  diligently,  and  I  think  may  be  begun 
betimes  if  the  tutor  will  be  but  careful  to  distinguish 
what  the  child  is  capable  of  knowing  and  what  not  ;  for 
which  this  may  be  a  rule  that  perhaps  will  go  a  pretty 
way,  viz.,  that  children  may  be  taught  anything  which 
falls  under  their  senses,  especially  their  sight,  as  far  as 
their  memories  only  are  exercised.  And  thus  a  child 
very  young  may  learn  which  is  the  equator,  and  which 
is  the  meridian,  which  Europe  and  which  England,  upon 
the  globes,  as  soon  almost  as  he  knows  the  rooms  of  the 
house  he  lives  in,  if  care  be  taken  not  to  teach  him  too 
much  at  once,  nor  to  set  him  upon  a  new  part  till  that 
which  he  is  upon  be  perfectly  learned  and  fixed  in  his 
memory.”  This  method  of  object-teaching  is  perhaps 
the  greatest  service  which  the  naturalistic  school  has  ren¬ 
dered  to  the  cause  of  education.  Hinted  at  by  Rabelais 
and  Locke,  still  more  largely  developed  by  Rousseau,  it 
has  received  in  the  last  century  a  more  accurate  and  sci¬ 
entific  form,  and  is  probably  destined  to  become  the 
source  of  a  new  curriculum  in  which  literature  will  only 
hold  a  secondary  place. 

To  encourage  independence  of  thought  rather  than  to 
amass  a  quantity  of  learning,  to  direct  study  rather  to  the 
strengthening  of  the  powers  of  the  mind  than  to  acquiring 


110 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOBIES. 


the  furniture  of  crudities,  is  the  key-note  of  Locke’s  ad¬ 
vice  on  the  “  Conduct  of  the  Understanding,”  and  is  one 
of  the  most  important  points  on  which  the  naturalistic 
school  insists.  This  view  of  the  objects  of  study  is  given 
most  clearly  in  Locke’s  remarks  upon  this  subject,  which 
were  written  in  his  journal  for  his  own  use  alone.1  He 
says,  “  Our  first  and  great  duty  is  to  bring  to  our  studies 
and  to  our  inquiries  after  knowledge  a  mind  covetous  of 
truth  ;  that  seeks  after  nothing  else,  and  after  that  impar¬ 
tially,  and  embraces  it,  how  poor,  how  contemptible,  and 
how  unfashionable  soever  it  may  be.”  Again,  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  essay,  “  I  will  only  say  this  one  thing 
concerning  books,  that  however  it  has  got  the  name,  yet 
converse  with  books  is  not  in  my  opinion  the  principal 
part  of  study  ;  there  are  two  others  that  ought  to  be 
joined  with  it,  each  whereof  constitutes  their  share  to  our 
improvement  in  knowledge,  and  these  are  meditation  and 
discourse.  Reading,  methinks,  is  but  collecting  the 
rough  materials,  among  which  a  great  deal  must  be  laid 
aside  as  useless.  Meditation  is  as  it  were  choosing  and 
fitting  the  materials,  framing  the  timbers,  squaring  and 
laying  the  stones,  and  raising  the  building  ;  and  dis¬ 
course  with  a  friend  (for  wrangling  in  a  dispute  is  of 
little  use)  is  as  it  were  surveying  the  structure,  walking  in 
the  rooms,  and  observing  the  symmetry  and  agreement 
of  the  parts,  taking  notice  of  the  solidity  or  defects  of  the 
works,  and  the  best  way  to  find  out  and  correct  what  is 
amiss  ;  besides  that  it  helps  often  to  discover  truths,  and 
fix  them  in  our  minds  as  much  as  either  of  the  other  two.” 

Locke  agrees  with  the  rest  of  the  advocates  of  the 
naturalistic  school  in  insisting  on  a  practical  education, 

1  This  essay  is  reprinted  by  Mr.  Quick. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


Ill 


which  is  to  fit  a  man  for  the  world,  and  in  this  he  has 
undoubtedly  been  partly  influenced  by  the  practical  char¬ 
acter  which  has  always  more  or  less  distinguished  our 
national  culture,  and  he  has  partly  done  much  to  give 
this  direction  to  our  education.  u  Since  it  cannot  be 
hoped,”  he  says,  “  that  [the  pupil]  should  have  time  and 
strength  to  learn  all  things,  most  pains  should  be  taken 
with  what  is  most  necessary,  and  that  principally  looked 
after  which  will  be  of  most  and  frccjucntest  use  to  him  in 
the  world.  Seneca  complains  of  the  contrary  practice  in 
his  time  ;  and  yet  the  Burgersdiciuses  and  the  Scheiblers 
did  not  swarm  in  those  -  days  as  they  do  now  in  these. 
What  would  he  have  thought  if  he  had  lived  now,  when 
the  tutors  think  it  their  great  business  to  fill  the  studies 
and  heads  of  their  pupils  with  such  authors  as  these  ? 
He  would  have  had  the  more  reason  to  say  as  he  docs, 
JVon  vitce  sed  scholce  discimus  j  we  learn  not  to  live  but  to 
dispute,  and  our  education  fits  us  rather  for  the  university 
than  the  world.  ’  ’ 

Another  characteristic  of  the  same  school  of  thinkers 
is  their  preference  of  kindness  to  severity,  and  the 
severe  condemnation  of  the  cruelty  and  harshness  which 
disfigured  the  schools  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is 
now  generally  admitted  that  of  the  two  chief  means 
of  compelling  the  attention  of  children,  and  induc¬ 
ing  them  to  learn,  pleasure  is  preferable  to  pain,  but  in 
Locke’s  day  this  truth  was  not  recognized.  He  strongly 
condemns  beating,  still  far  too  much  in  use  in  our  public 
schools.  “  The  usual  lazy  and  short  way  by  chastisement 
and  the  rod,  which  is  the  only  instrument  of  government 
that  tutors  generally  know  or  ever  think  of,  is  the  most 
unfit  of  any  to  be  used  in  education.”  “  I  cannot  think 


112 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


> 


any  correction  useful  to  a  child  where  the  shame  of  suf¬ 
fering  for  having  done  amiss  does  not  work  more  upon 
him  than  the  pain.  ”  “  Such  a  sort  of  slavish  discipline 

makes  a  slavish  temper.”  “  Beating  them  and  all  other 
sorts  of  slavish  and  corporal  punishments  are  not  the  dis¬ 
cipline  fit  to  be  used  in  the  education  of  those  we  would 
have  wise,  good,  and  ingenuous  men,  and  therefore  very 
rarely  to  be  applied,  and  that  only  in  great  occasions  and 
cases  of  extremity.”  The  real  incentives  to  virtuous  ex¬ 
ertion  are  the  desire  of  esteem,  and  tho  fear  of  disgrace. 
But  after  all,  the  “  right  way  to  teach  is  to  give  them  a 
liking  and  inclination  to  what  you  purpose  them  to  be 
learned,  and  that  will  engage  their  industry  and  applica¬ 
tion.  This  I  think  no  hard  matter  to  do  if  children  be 
handled  as  they  should  be.”  “  None  of  the  things  they 
are  to  learn  should  ever  be  made  a  burden  to  them,  or 
imposed  on  them  as  a  task.”  “  As  a  consequence  of  this 
they  should  seldom  be  put  doing  even  those  things  you 
have  got  an  inclination  in  them  to,  but  when  they  have  a 
mind  and  disposition  to  it.”  Here  we  seem  to  have 
reached  the  most  modern  conclusions  of  Herbert  Spencer. 
Get  them  but  to  ask  their  tutor  to  teach  them  as  they  do 
often  their  playfellows,  instead  of  his  calling  upon  them 
to  learn,  and  they  being  satisfied  that  they  act  as  freely  in 
this  as  they  do  in  other  things,  they  will  go  on  with  as 
much  pleasure  in  it,  and  it  will  not  differ  from  their  other 
sports  and  play.  By  these  ways  carefully  pursued  a  child 
may  be  brought  to  desire  to  be  taught  anything  you  have 
a  mind  he  should  learn.” 

Finally  Locke  agrees  with  Rabelais,  Montaigne,  and 
Rousseau  in  laying  great  stress  on  the  importance  of 
bodily  training.  It  is  as  important  as  that  of  the  mind. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


113 


He  says  at  the  very  outset  of  his  treatise,  u  A  sound 
mind  in  a  sound  body  is  a  short  but  full  description  of  a 
happy  state  in  this  world.  He  that  has .  these  two  has 
little  more  to  wish  for  ;  and  he  that  wants  either  of  them 
will  be  but  little  the  better  for' anything  else.”  Locke’s 
advice  as  to  the  health  of  children  occupies  the  first  thirty 
sections  of  his  essay.  In  Mr.  Quick’s  edition  a  dis¬ 
tinguished  physician  shows  how  far  Locke’s  advice  cor¬ 
responds  with  the  best  medical  science  of  the  present  day. 
He  says  that  only  on  one  important  point  can  his  advice 
be  considered  wrong,  and  that  is  where  he  recommends 
that  children’s  boots  should  have  holes  in  them  in  order 
that  they  may  be  kept  constantly  wet.  Locke’s  advice  on 
physical  training  consists  mainly  of  the  following  points. 

1.  Children  are  to  be  hardened  to  cold  and  heat,  and  not 
protected  too  carefully  against  extremes  of  temperature. 

2.  They  are  to  wash  the  feet  at  least,  if  not  the  whole 
body,  in  cold  water.  3.  They  are  to  learn  to  swim,  and 
to  live  as  much  as  possible  in  the  open  air.  4.  They  are 
to  wear  loose  clothing.  5.  They  are  to  eat  little  meat, 
none  at  all  for  the  first  three  or  four  years  of  life,  little 
sugar,  and  no  spice.  When  a  child  is  hungry  between 
meals,  let  him  eat  a  piece  of  brown  bread.  6.  A  child’s 
meals  are  to  be  irregular.  7.  He  is  to  drink  small  beer 
(which  in  Locke’s  time  took  the  place  of  water),  but 
never  until  he  has  eaten  something  ;  Avine  and  strong- 
drink  is  on  all  accounts  to  be  avoided.  8.  Ripe  fruit  is 
much  to  be  commended,  especially  before  or  between 
meals.  9.  Children  are  to  go  early  to  bed,  and  are  to 
rise  betimes.  Eight  hours’  sleep  is  enough  for  most 
children.  The  bed  is  not  to  be  soft,  and  children  must 
be  gently  wakened.  10.  Great  care  is  to  be  paid  to  the 


114 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


regularity  of  the  digestion.  11.  As  little  physic  is  to  be 
taken  as  possible.  “And  thus,”  Locke  says,  “  I  have 
done  with  wliat  concerns  the  body  and  health,  which  re¬ 
duces  itself  to  these  few  and  easy  observable  rules — plenty 
of  open  air,  exercise,  and  'sleep,  plain  diet,  no  wine  or 
strong  drink,  and  very  little  or  no  physic,  not  too  warm 
or  strait  clothing,  especially  the  head  and  feet  kept  cold, 
and  the  feet  often  used  to  cold  water  and  exposed  to  wet.” 

Such  are  the  most  characteristic  features  of  Locke’s 
principles  of  education.  Whether  his  treatise  is  much  read 
new  or  not,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  at  one  time 
popular  in  England,  and  many  of  the  precepts  which  he 
was  the  first  to  suggest  have  become  traditional  in  prac¬ 
tice.  Its  sound  common-sense  and  good  judgment  would 
make  it  particularly  acceptable  to  the  English  mind,  and, 
with  the  exception  of  Milton’s  tractate  on  education, 
which  would  seem  visionary  to  the  superficial  reader,  it  is 
one  of  the  few  works  of  importance  on  education  which 
appeared  in  England  until  the  essays  of  Mr.  Spencer.  As 
we  have  before  said,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  has 
at  some  time  or  other  had  a  considerable  influence  on  the 
system  of  our  public  schools.  But  there  are  some  por¬ 
tions  of  it,  extremely  valuable,  concerned  with  subjects 
on  which  Locke  was  well  qualified  to  speak,  which  have 
been  unaccountably  neglected.  Among  these  are  his 
strong  condemnation  of  Latin  themes  and  verses,  and  of 
the  practice  of  saying  by  heart.  “  By  all  means  obtain  if 
you  can  that  [your  son]  be  not  employed  in  making  Latin 
themes  and  declamations,  and  least  of  all  verses  of  any 
kind.  ”  “  Do  but  consider  what  it  is  in  making  a  theme 

that  a  young  lad  is  employed  about  ;  it  is  to  make  a 
speech  on  some  Latin  saying,  as  Omnia  vincit  amor ,  or 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


115 


Non  licet  in  hello  his  peccare ,  etc.  And  here  the  poor  lad 
who  wants  knowledge  of  these  things  he  is  to  speak  of, 
which  is  to  be  had  only  from  time  and  observation,  must 
set  his  invention  on  the  rack  to  say  something  where  he 
knows  nothing,  which  is  a  sort  of  Egyptian  tyranny  to 
bid  them  make  bricks  who  have  not  yet  any  of  the  mate- 
iials.  And  therefore  it  is  usual  in  such  cases  for  the  poor 
children  to  go  to  those  of  higher  forms  with  this  petition, 
Pray  give  me  cl  little  sense ,  which  whether  it  be  more 
reasonable  or  more  ridiculous  is  not  easy  to  determine.” 
On  the  other  hand,  the  practice  of  debating  rational  and 
useful  questions  in  extempore  speeches  is  extremely  val¬ 
uable.  If  themes  are  set  in  order  to  teach  Latin,  that  is 
not  the  way  to  it,  “  when  they  are  making  a  theme  ’tis 
thoughts  they  search  and  sweat  for,  and  not  language.  ’  ’ 
“  If  boys’  invention  be  to  be  quickened  by  such  exercise, 
let  them  make  themes  in  English,  where  they  have 
facility,  and  a  command  of  words,  and  will  better  see 
what  kind  of  thoughts  they  have,  when  put  into  their  own 
lano'uao’e.”  The  case  against  verses  is  stated  still  more 
strongly.  “  If  these  may  be  any  reasons  against  chil¬ 
dren’s  making  Latin  themes  at  school,  I  have  much  more 
to  say,  and  of  more  weight,  against  their  making  verses — 
verses  of  any  sort.  For  if  he  has  no  genius  to  poetry  ’tis 
the  most  unreasonable  thing  in  the  world  to  torment  a 
child,  and  waste  his  time,  about  that  which  can  never 
succeed,  and  if  he  have  a  poetic  vein  ’tis  to  me  the 
strangest  thing  in  the  world  that  the  father  should  desire 
or  suffer  it  to  be  cherished  or  improved.”  “  But  yet  if 
any  one  will  think  poetry  a  desirable  quality  in  his  son, 
and  that  the  study  of  it  would  raise  his  fancy  and  parts, 
he  must  needs  yet  confess  that  to  that  end  reading  the 


116 


EDUCATION xlL  THEORIES. 


excellent  Greek  and  Roman  poets  is  of  more  use  than 
making  bad  verses  of  his  own  in  a  language  that  is  not 
his  own.  And  he  whose  design  it  is  to  excel  in  English 
poetry  would  not,  I  guess,  think  the  way  to  it  were  to 
make  his  first  essays  in  Latin  verses.  ’  ’ 

It  is  strange  that,  notwithstanding  the  denunciations  of 
Locke,  Milton,  and  Macaulay,  the  two  last  of  whom  can¬ 
not  be  thought  to  have  been  insensible  to  literary  or 
poetical  grace,  the  practice  of  writing  original  themes  and 
verses  in  dead  languages  should  occupy  a  position  of  such 
importance  in  our  public  schools.  Great  as  is  the  burden 
to  the  boys,  the  correction  of  their  exercises  is  a  heavier 
labor  to  the  masters.  In  some  schools  it  occupies  so 
much  time  as  to  make  self-improvement  and  the  proper 
preparation  of  lessons  impossible.  No  seriously  bene¬ 
ficial  change  in  our  public  school  education  can  be  looked 
for  unless  the  worship  of  this  idol  is  once  for  all  abolished. 

Locke  declaims  with  equal  decisiveness  and  force  against 
the  piactice,  so  common  in  our  schools,  of  repeating  long 
passages  of  classical  authors  by  heart.  It  does  not,  he 
says,  improve  the  memory.  ‘  ‘  The  gift  of  memory  is 
owing  to  a  happy  constitution,  not  to  any  habitual  im¬ 
provement  got  by  exercise.  ’Tis  true  that  what  the  mind 
is  intent  upon,  and  for  fear  of  letting  it  slip  often  im¬ 
prints  afresh  on  itself  by  frequent  reflection,  that  it  is 
apt  to  retain,  but  still  according  to  its  own  natural 
strength  of  retention.”  In  fact,  memory  comes  from 
interest.  What  children  are  deeply  interested  in  they 
will  never  forget.  A  boy  who  can  never  say  his  lesson 
by  heart  will  remember  every  detail  of  the  cricket  or 
football  matches  in  which  his  heart  really  lies.  Besides, 
at  best,  this  learning  by  heart  is  but  learning  to  forget 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


117 


again.  An  Italian  preacher  will  recite  by  heart  a  long 
sermon  without  loss  of  a  word,  hut  a  week  afterward  he 
will  not  remember  a  word  of  it.  Children  should  learn 
by  heart  what  they  are  intended  never  to  forget,  and 
“  therefore,”  says  Locke,  “  I  think  that  it  may  do  well 
to  give  them  something  every  day  to  remember,  but 
something  still  that  is  in  itself  worth  the  remembering, 
and  which  you  would  never  have  out  of  mind  whenever 
you  call  or  they  themselves  search  for  it.” 

Locke’s  treatise  is  of  great  value  to  teachers,  but  it  has 
serious  defects.  Among  these  is  his  strange  neglect  of 
science.  Although  he  gives  full  credit  to  the  work  of 
Newton  in  explaining  the  operations  of  the  solar  system, 
he  appears  to  have  little  hope  that  the  same  system  of  in¬ 
duction  would  lead  to  similar  conquests  in  other  spheres. 
Also,  as  he  admits,  he  has  “  touched  little  more  than 
those  heads  which  I  judged  necessary  for  the  breeding  of 
a  young  gentleman.  Whereas  a  prince,  a  nobleman,  and 
an  ordinary  gentleman’s  son  should  have  different  ways  of 
breeding.”  Therefore  it  cannot  be  considered  as  a  gen¬ 
eral  treatise  on  education  applicable  to  the  mass  of  the 
people,  or  even  to  the  conduct  of  a  large  school.  Also 
the  character  of  the  work  is  to  some  extent  polemical, 
that  is,  the  author  attacks  vigorously  those  points  in  the 
received  system  which  he  wishes  to  see  changed.  Had  it 
been  otherwise  he  might  have  given  more  weight  to  intel¬ 
lectual  education,  as,  in  the  “  Thoughts  concerning  read¬ 
ing  and  study  for  a  gentleman,”  he  admits  that  the  gen¬ 
tleman’s  “  proper  calling  is  the  service  of  his  country, 
and  so  is  most  properly  concerned  in  moral  and  political 
knowledge,  and  thus  the  studies  which  more  immediately 
belong  to  his  calling  are  those  which  treat  of  virtues  and 


118 


educational  theories. 


vices,  of  civil  society  and  the  arts  of  government,  and  will 
take  in  also  law  and  history.”  But  even  here  he  adds 
the  caution  that  “  men  of  much  reading  are  greatly 
learned  but  may  be  little  knowing.  ’  ’ 

The  treatise  of  Locke  should  be  carefully  studied  by 
every  schoolmaster,  and  the  more  so  because,  although  by 
his  system  of  philosophy  he  disbelieved  in  the  existence 
of  innate  ideas,  and  regarded  the  child’s  mind  as  a  piece 
of  white  paper  or  as  wax  to  be  moulded,  yet  he  does  not 
deny  the  existence  of  different  inherited  capacities  in 
different  individuals.  “  Each  man’s  mind  has  some 
peculiarity  as  well  as  his  face,  that  distinguishes  him  from 
all  others,  and  there  are  possibly  scarce  two  children  who 
can  be  conducted  by  exactly  the  same  method.  ’  ’ 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

JESUITS  AND  JANSENISTS. 

Whatever  abuse  has  been  lavished  for  three  hundred 
years  upon  the  heads  of  the  Jesuits,  an  exception  is  gen¬ 
erally  made  in  reference  to  their  services  in  the  cause  of 
education.  Bacon  speaks  of  them  with  the  highest 
praise,  and  regrets  that  similar  reformers  are  not  to  be 
found  in  other  countries.  He  says  in  the  “  Advancement 
of  Learning,”  “  for  what  concerns  the  instruction  of 
youth  there  is  only  one  word  to  say — consult  the  classes 
of  the  Jesuits,  for  there  can  be  nothing  better.”  He 
says  in  another  passage  that  when  he  thinks  of  them  he 
recalls  what  Agesilaus  said  of  Pharnabazus,  “Tabs  cum 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


119 


sis  utinam  noster  esses.  ’  ’  Descartes  also  considered  their 
college  of  La  Fleclie  as  one  of  the  best  schools  in  Europe, 
although  he  attributes  its  merit  rather  to  the  variety  of 
the  students  and  their  influence  on  one  another  than  to 
any  excellence  of  teaching  on  the  part  of  the  fathers 
themselves.  Public  opinion  was  certainly  on  their  side. 
Under  Henry  III.,  Henry  IV.,  Louis XIII.,  Louis  XIV., 
the  Jesuit  colleges  in  France  were  always  crowded,  in 
spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  university,  and  at  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  they  had  nearly  14,000 
pupils  in  the  province  of  Paris,  and  more  than  1800  in 
the  College  of  Clermont.  In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  just  before  the  dissolution  of  the  order,  it  con¬ 
tained  22,589  members.  The  order  had  669  colleges  and 
117  seminaries.  The  latest  census  reckons  the  order  as 
consisting  of  9546  members,  of  whom  three  thousand 
were  in  France,  and  a  little  over  a  thousand  in  England. 

An  account  of  the  system  of  education  given  by  the 
Company  of  Jesus  is  contained  mainly  in  four  books. 
1.  The  Original  Constitutions  of  Ignatius  Loyola,  with 
the  commentary  of  his  successor,  Laynez.  2.  The 
“  Ratio  Studiorum,”  drawn  up  by  a  special  commission 
under  the  eyes,  and  by  the  authority,  of  Aquaviva.  It  is 
divided  into  twenty-eight  sections.  It  contains  statutes 
for  the  provincial,  the  rector,  the  prefects  of  studies,  the 
professors  of  the  superior  faculties,  the  prefects  of  the  in¬ 
ferior  studies,  the  teachers  of  the  lower  classes,  and  for 
the  other  preceptors  and  students  of  the  order.  It  is  a 
programme  of  studies,  indicating  with  the  greatest  minute¬ 
ness  their  order  and  their  division,  the  subjects  of  teach¬ 
ing  in  each  class,  the  duties  of  each  professor.  The 
drawing  up  of  this  important  work  was  begun  in  1582, 


120 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


but  it  was  not  printed  till  1599.  3.  In  1706  was  pub¬ 

lished  at  Frankfort  a  third  book,  the  treatise  of  Father 
Jouvency,  “  De  ratione  discendi  et  docendi  magistris 
scliolarura  inferiorum.”  4.  With  this  is  generally  in¬ 
cluded  a  treatise  by  Sacchini,  published  at  Rome  1625, 
“  Paraenesis  ad  magistros  scholarum  inferiorum.”  The 
last  twro  may  be  considered  as  the  completion  of  the 
“  Ratio  Studiorum,”  based  on  the  methods  in  use  at  the 
College  of  Clermont.  The  four  books  are  closely  con¬ 
nected  together.  The  “  Ratio  Studiorum”  is  a  commen¬ 
tary  upon  the  Constitutions,  the  manuals  of  Jouvency  and 
Sacchini  are  the  directors  of  the  teacher,  guarding  him  at 
every  step  and  guiding  him  in  every  particular. 

We  find  that  in  France,  and  similarly  in  other  coun¬ 
tries,  the  colleges  of  the  Company  were  divided  into  three 
classes.  1.  The  great  colleges  with  a  revenue  of  20,000 
francs,  containing  about  100  teachers,  in  which  were 
taught,  besides  the  classics  and  sciences,  theology  and 
Eastern  languages,  with  a  special  view  to  missions.  2. 
The  middle  colleges,  with  a  revenue  of  16,000  francs  and 
about  fifty  teachers,  instructing  only  in  classics  and  phi¬ 
losophy,  this  last  consisting  of  logic,  morals,  metaphysics, 
physics,  and  mathematics.  3.  Small  colleges,  with  a  rev¬ 
enue  of  10,000  francs  and  a  staff  of  from  twenty  to  forty 
teachers,  dealing  only  with  the  ordinary  classical  curricu¬ 
lum  and  morality.  The  education  was  gratuitous,  and 
the  poor  and  the  rich  were  educated  together.  This  how¬ 
ever  did  not  prevent  the  colleges  from  receiving  presents, 
and  the  amount  of  these  received  from  the  richer  students 
shows  that  they  were  well  able  to  educate  the  poorer  stu¬ 
dents  for  nothing.  The  colleges  began  as  seminaries  for 
the  novices  of  the  order  ;  then  outdoor  pupils  were  ad- 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


121 


mittcd  at  the  request  of  the  public  ;  then  bursaries  were 
added  by  private  munificence  ;  and,  lastly,  the  sons  of 
rich  and  noble  families  were  admitted  also.  Besides  the 
regular  colleges,  other  institutions  were  founded  under 
the  direction  of  the  rector,  such  as  convictoria  alumnorumf 
boarding  schools  in  which  a  small  sum  was  paid  for  board 
and  lodging.  Seminaries  exclusively  for  the  education  of 
priests,  and  schools  into  which  none  were  admitted  except 
the  scions  of  noble  families.  We  have  only  to  deal  now 
with  the  little  colleges  which  belong  to  secondary  or 
school  education.  These  were  governed  by  a  rector  and 
a  prefect  of  studies.  His  duty  was  to  visit  the  classes, 
to  conduct  the  examinations,  and  generally  to  inspect  the 
work  of  teachers  and  pupils.  Under  him  a  sub-prefect 
attended  especially  to  discipline.  The  school  was  divided 
into  five  classes  :  the  class  of  Rudiments,  the  class  of 
Grammar,  the  class  of  Syntax,  the  class  of  Poetry,  and 
the  class  of  Rhetoric.  These  classes  might  be  subdivided 
but  were  never  confused.  The  Jesuits  were  the  inventors 
of  “  parallel  forms,”  a  system  now  common  in  our  public 
schools.  The  course  lasted  six  years,  the  first  four 
classes  occupying  a  year  each,  the  class  of  Rhetoric  two 
years.  The  main  object  of  the  whole  instruction  was 
knowledge  of  Latin.  This  was  the  language  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  served  at  the  same  time  to  separate  them 
from  the  common  herd,  and  to  unite  them  by  a  bond  of 
union  which  was  independent  of  the  differences  of  speech 
and  country.  The  great  object  of  their  education  was 
style.  They  knew  too  well  the  dangers  of  pagan  litera¬ 
ture  to  indoctrinate  their  pupils  with  the  spirit  of  the 
classics. 

In  the  class  of  Rudiments  were  taught  the  Latin  de- 
9 


122 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


clensions  and  conjugations,  and  the  first  beginnings  of 
syntax.  Cicero’s  letters  were  read,  De  viris  illustribus, 
fables  of  Phsedrus,  and  Cornelius  Nepos.  The  school 
hours  were  two  and  a  half  hours  in  the  morning  and  the 
same  in  the  afternoon.  The  time  was  carefully  subdivided 
by  half  hours  and  quarter  hours.  Rules  of  grammar  and 
portions  of  authors  were  explained  ;  both  of  these  were 
learned  by  heart  and  repeated,  not  to  the  master  but  to  the 
decurions  or  heads  of  tens,  the  Zehntmanner  of  Comenius. 
A  little  composition  was  done  and  carefully  corrected. 
By  a  practice  called  concertatio,  pupils  were  stimulated  to 
challenge  each  other’s  mistakes,  an  usage  long  kept  up  at 
Westminster.  To  develop  copiousness  of  diction,  long 
vocabularies  of  Latin  words  were  learned  and  classified 
according  to  the  categories  to  which  they  belonged.  The 
second  class,  called  Grammar  or  little  Syntax,  carried  the 
knowledge  of  Latin  further.  Selections  of  Ovid  were 
read,  Cmsar,  Cicero’s  de  Amicitia  and  de  Senectute,  Ver¬ 
gil’s  Eclogues  and  Georgies.  The  third  class  of  Grammar 
completed  the  knowledge  of  syntax  and  prosody.  Greek 
was  learned  in  all  three  classes  by  the  side  of  Latin,  only  to 
a  much  less  extent.  Religion  received  a  good  deal  of  at¬ 
tention  ;  of  arithmetic,  geography,  history,  and  modern 
languages  not  a  word  is  said.  The  two  upper  classes  were 
called  the  classes  of  Humanities  ;  the  first  was  called 
Humanity  or  Poetry,  the  second  Rhetoric.  These  high- 
sounding  names  were  scarcely  warranted  by  the  facts. 
The  “  Ratio  Studiorum”  states  that  the  business  of 
“  Poetry”  is  to  prepare  the  groundwork  of  eloquence, 
and  this  in  three  ways— by  the  knowledge  of  the  lan¬ 
guage,  by  erudition,  and  by  a  short  instruction  in  the 
rules  of  rhetoric.  u  Rhetoric”  is  to  form  the  pupil  to  a 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


123 


perfect  eloquence,  to  the  faculty  of  the  orator  and  the 
poet,  but  the  first  is  the  most  important.  In  short  we 
see  that  the  object  of  these  three  last  years  is  the  forma¬ 
tion  of  a  Latin  style  in  prose  and  poetry.  For  this  pur¬ 
pose  the  speeches  of  Cicero  were  read,  Caesar,  Sallust, 
Livy,  Curtius,  Vergil,  Horace,  and  other  Latin  authors. 
These  were  carefully  expurgated.  To  this  was  added  the 
other  exercises  of  classical  education  with  which  we  are 
familiar  in  our  public  schools — repeating  passages  by 
heart,  the  writing  of  Latin  themes  and  verses,  for  the 
better  composition  of  which  the  “  Gradusad  Parnassum” 
was  invented  by  a  Jesuit,  concertations,  declamations, 
and  the  acting  of  Latin  plays.  In  the  three  lower  classes 
half-an-hour  a  day  had  been  devoted  to  Greek,  in  the  two 
upper  this  time  was  doubled.  If  we  may  judge  by  the 
list  of  Greek  authors  which  were  supposed  to  be  read, 
considerable  proficiency  must  have  been  attained.  It 
comprises  Demosthenes,  Plato,  Thucydides,  Homer,  He¬ 
siod,  Pindar,  and  others  of  the  same  kind,  Gregory  of 
Nazianzen,  Basil,  Chrysostom,  writings  of  Lucian,  Plu¬ 
tarch,  Ilerodian,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides.  But  we 
know  that  this  imposing  parade  meant  but  little,  and  that 
but  little  energy  and  vigor  were  really  put  into  this  study. 
All  knowledge  which  was  not  language  or  style  was 
classed  by  the  Jesuits  under  the  name  of  erudition,  and  to 
this  were  to  be  devoted  extraneous  hours,  but  no  portion 
of  the  regular  curriculum.  These  subjects  might  properly 
be  learned  on  whole  holidays,  or  got  up  by  students  as 
preparation  for  examinations.  Among  the  subjects  of 
erudition  were  included  arithmetic,  history,  geography, 
and  the  elements  of  algebra  and  geometry. 

Let  us  examine  the  daily  work  of  a  Jesuit  school.  The 


124 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


bell  sounds  at  half-past  six,  and  the  scholars  gradually 
assemble.  At  seven  all  attend  mass,  and  at  half-past 
seven  the  work  of  the  day  begins.  After  a  short  prayer, 
the  master  mounts  his  desk,  and  the  boys  say  their  les¬ 
sons  by  heart  to  the  decurions,  while  the  master  collects 
and  corrects  the  exercises,  and  hears  some  lessons  himself. 
From  eight  to  nine  the  lessons  of  the  day  before  are  gone 
over,  and  a  lecture  is  given  on  the  new  matter  to  be  learned 
during  the  day.  At  nine  the  subject  of  a  short  compo¬ 
sition  is  given  out,  which  must  be  written,  corrected,  and 
copied  out  within  the  hour.  While  the  boys  are  writing, 
the  master  calls  up  some  of  the  weaker  students  and  gives 
them  private  explanations.  At  ten  the  school  is  dis¬ 
missed.  They  come  together  again  at  half-past  one. 
Lessons  are  again  heard  by  the  decurions ,  and  exercises 
corrected  by  the  master.  The  lessons  previously  given  out 
are  repeated,  and  new  ones  set.  At  three  the  compo¬ 
sition  of  the  morning  is  corrected  by  the  master,  and 
places  are  taken  and  lost.  At  half-past  three  the  exercise 
to  be  done  at  home  is  given  out,  and  the  day  ends  with 
a  concertation  or  challenging.  This  is  the  order  for  Mon¬ 
days  and  Wednesdays,  which  are  whole  school  days. 
Tuesday  and  Thursday  are  different,  and  one  of  them  is 
a  half-holiday.  On  Friday  especial  attention  is  given  to 
religious  instruction,  and  on  Saturday  the  work  done  dur¬ 
ing  the  week  is  examined  by  the  master,  with  a  general 
competition  among  the  students.  Such  was  the  normal 
order,  but  it  was  terribly  broken  up  by  saints’  days  and 
festivals  of  the  Church.  What  first  attracted  pupils  to 
the  Jesuits  in  France  was  the  greater  mildness  of  disci¬ 
pline  compared  with  the  colleges  of  the  University.  Cor¬ 
poral  punishment  was  not  entirely  abolished — it  was  in- 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


125 


flicted  by  a  servant,  and  not  by  tlie  fathers  themselves 
but  suavity  and  the  use  of  persuasion  was  prescribed  be¬ 
fore  everything.  At  the  same  time  complete  and  abso¬ 
lute  obedience  was  exacted  from  the  children.  Another 
feature  in  their  favor  was  the  isolation  of  the  colleges. 
Hio-h  walls  surrounded  them.  Heavy  doors  shut  them 
in.  There  were  no  servants  to  corrupt,  no  fathers  to 
laugh  at  the  escapades  of  their  sons.  The  pupils  were 
kept  under  surveillance  in  the  streets  to  and  from  lecture. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Jesuits  owed  their  success  partly 
to  the  very  narrow  task  which  they  set  themselves,  little 
beyond  the  teaching  of  Latin  style,  and  partly  to  the 
careful  training  which  they  gave  their  students,  a  training 
which  often  degenerated  into  mere  mechanical  exercise. 
Hut  the  mainspring  of  their  influence  was  the  manner  in 
which  they  worked  the  dangerous  force  of  emulation. 
Those  pupils  who  were  most  distinguished  at  the  end  of 
each  month  received  the  rank  of  prcetor,  censor,  and  de- 
curion.  The  class  was  divided  into  two  parts,  called 
Homans  and  Carthaginians,  Greeks  and  Trojans.  The 
students  sat  opposite  each  other,  the  master  in  the  mid¬ 
dle,  the  walls  were  hung  with  swords,  spears,  and  shields, 
which  the  contending  parties  carried  off  in  triumph  as  the 
prize  of  victory.  These  pupils’  contests  wasted  a  great 
deal  of  time.  The  Jesuits  established  public  school  festi¬ 
vals,  at  which  the  pupils  might  be  exhibited,  and  the 
parents  flattered.  They  made  their  own  school-books,  in 
which  the  requirements  of  good  teaching  were  not  so  im¬ 
portant  as  the  religious  objects  of  the  order.  They  pre¬ 
ferred  extracts  to  whole  authors  5  if  they  could  not  prune 
the  classics  to  their  fancy,  they  would  not  read  them  at  all. 

What  judgment  are  we  to  pass  on  the  Jesuit  teaching 


126 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


as  a  whole  ?  It  deserves  praise  on  two  accounts.  First, 
it  maintained  the  dignity  of  literature  in  an  age  which 
was  too  liable  to  be  influenced  by  considerations  of  prac¬ 
tical  utility.  It  maintained  the  study  of  Greek  in  France 
at  a  higher  level  than  the  University,  and  resisted  the 
assaults  of  ignorant  parents  on  the  fortress  of  Hellenism. 
Secondly,  it  seriously  set  itself  to  understand  the  nature 
and  character  of  the  individual  pupil,  and  to  suit  the  man¬ 
ner  of  education  to  the  mind  that  was  to  receive  it. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  motives  of  Jesuits  in  gain¬ 
ing  the  affections,  and  securing  the  devotion  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  under  their  charge  ;  whether  their  desire  was  to  de- 
velop  the  individuality  which  they  probed,  or  to  destroy 
it  in  its  germ,  and  plant  a  new  nature  in  its  place  ;  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  loving  care  which  they  spent 
upon  their  charge  was  a  new  departure  in  education,  and 
has  become  a  part  of  every  reasonable  system  since  their 
time.  Here  our  praise  must  end.  The  systematizing  of 
their  classes  and  of  their  curriculum,  for  which  Itanke 
praises  them,  was  borrowed  from  John  Sturm,  and 
marred  in  the  stealing.  If  Sturm  is  responsible  for  the 
predominance  of  a  narrow  classical  education  in  our 
higher  schools,  the  Jesuits  are  responsible  for  giving  that 
education  a  more  frivolous  and  more  effeminate  turn. 
They  taught  classics  not  because  they  were  the  best 
means  of  training  the  intellect,  but  because  they  were 
fashionable,  and  having  accepted  them  they  tried  to  ren¬ 
der  them  as  innocuous  as  possible.  They  amused  the 
mind  instead  of  strengthening  it.  They  occupied  in 
frivolities  such  as  Latin  verses  the  years  which  they  feared 
might  otherwise  be  given  to  reasoning  and  the  acquisition 
of  solid  knowledge.  Our  Protestant  schools- have  fallen 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


127 


only  too  readily  into  the  tra£.  Nothing  shows  more 
clearly  the  essential  weakness  of  their  system  than  its  in¬ 
adaptability  to  modern  wants.  The  “  Ratio  Studiorum” 
has  been  revised  by  the  late  and  the  present  generals  of 
the  order,  Father  Roothan  and  Father  Bekcx.  But  they 
found  it  impossible  to  remodel  without  destroying  it. 
Celebrated  as  the  Jesuit  schools  have  been,  they  have 
owed  much  more  to  the  fashion  which  filled  them  with 
promising  scholars,  than  to  their  own  excellence  in  dealing 
with  their  material.  Voltaire  found  out  their  rottenness. 
“  I  learned  nothing  from  the  Jesuits,”  he  said,  “  but  Latin 
and  rubbish.”  They  have  never  stood  the  test  of  modern 
criticism.  They  have  no  place  in  a  rational  system  of 
modern  education.  We  have  long  ceased  to  regard  them 
as  models,  but  we  still  suffer  our  schools  to  be  encum¬ 
bered  with  methods  and  practices  which  we  should  never 
have  thought  of  introducing  if  it  had  not  been  for  their 
brilliant  but  ephemeral  success. 

Very  different  was  the  character  of  the  schools  of  Port 
Royal,  founded  by  that  brilliant  society  of  Jansenists  who 
clustered  round  the  monastery  of  Angel i quo  Arnauld. 
They  form  the  most  hopeful  experiment  in  education 
which  was  ever  attempted  in  France,  and  in  estimating 
the  influence  of  the  Jesuits  we  cannot  leave  out  of  the  ac¬ 
count  that  the  success  of  these  schools  was  foiled  by  their 
narrow-minded  jealousy  and  opposition.  The  education 
of  Port  Royal  has  had  a  reputation  which  is  out  of  pro¬ 
portion  either  to  the  time  during  which  it  existed  or  to  the 
number  of  scholars  which  it  trained.  The  little  schools, 
petites  ecoles  as  they  were  called,  in  order  that  they  might 
not  seem  to  clash  with  the  University,  were  founded  in 
1643.  They  existed  only  seventeen  years,  having  been 


128 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOEIES. 


suppressed  in  1660.  It  i§  probable  that  they  had  at  no 
time  more  than  fifty  pupils.  Their  locality  was  repeatedly 
changed,  sometimes  to  avoid  the  troubles  of  the  civil  war, 
sometimes  to  escape  persecution.  For  the  most  part  they 
were  held  at  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  in  a  secluded  valley, 
hidden  among  the  woods  which  border  the  park  of  Ver¬ 
sailles,  sometimes  at  the  houses  of  les  Granges,  of  Chesnai, 
or  at  the  Chateau  des  Trous.  When  they  were  destroyed 
in  1660  by  the  jealousy  of  the  Jesuits,  who  were  influen¬ 
tial  at  court,  the  masters,  persecuted  and  imprisoned, 
devoted  themselves  to  the  work  of  recording  their  experi¬ 
ences  in  writing.  The  principal  teachers  were — Nicole, 
whose  thoughts  are  not  unworthy  to  be  ranked  by  the  side 
of  Pascal’s.  His  views  on  education  are  best  expressed  in 
his  book  on  the  education  of  a  prince.  Next  is  Lancelot, 
the  Melanchthon  of  the  movement,  the  writer  of  admirable 
school-books,  the  “  Methodes  de  Port-Royal,”  and  the 
“  Jardin  des  Racines  Grecques,”  which  taught  Greek  to 
Gibbon.  The  greatest  of  all  is  Arnauld,  the  polemist  of 
the  sect,  who  contributed  to  the  logic  and  the  general 
grammar  some  of  their  best  pages. 

One  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  school  of  Port 
Royal  distinguishes  them  at  once  from  the  Jesuits.  They 
entirely  discouraged  emulation  as  being  contrary  to  the 
principles  of  Christian  charity.  Pascal  complained  that 
this  made  the  pupils  a  little  slack  and  dull,  but,  compared 
with  the  frivolous  contests  of  their  rivals,  it  was  a  fault  on 
the  right  side.  Again,  the  classes  never  consisted  of  more 
than  five  or  six  children  under  the  care  of  a  single  master. 
This  gave  the  teacher  opportunity  to  study  the  individual 
peculiarities  of  his  pupils,  and  gave  the  fullest  scope  to 
the  action  of  personal  influence.  At  the  same  time  over- 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


129 


familiarity  was  discouraged.  The  masters  were  never  to 
forget  the  reverence  due  to  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  the  boys  were  not  allowed  to  tutoyer  each  other 
in  their  private  conversations.  A  further  difference  be¬ 
tween  them  and  the  Jesuits  is  that  they  founded  their 
studies  in  the  French  language  and  not  in  Latin.  The 
century  which  had  intervened  from  the  foundation  of  the 
Jesuit  schools  made  it  easier  to  do  this,  because  during 
that  time  the  French  language  as  wre  know  it  had  come 
into  existence.  The  Jansenists  set  the  example  of  making 
good  translations.  In  1647  they  published  the  fables  of 
Phaedrus,  French  and  Latin  side  by  side,  “  Pour  servir  cl 
bien  entendre  la  langue  latine  et  a  Men  traduire  en 
frangois.'1'  In  1647  followed  the  translation  of  the 
“  Andria,  ”  the  “  Adelplii,”  and  the  u  Phormio”  of 
Terence,  “  rendues  tres  honnetes  en  y  changeant  fort  peu 
cle  chose.  ”  At  a  later  time  followed  translations  of  the 
“  Captives  of  Plautus,”  of  some  of  the  letters  of  Cicero 
to  Atticus,  of  a  selection  of  Cicero’s  letters  to  his  friends, 
of  the  Eclogues,  Georgies,  and  some  books  of  the  HCneid 
of  Vergil.  Although  many  of  these  books  appeared  after 
the  destruction  of  their  schools,  they  were  conceived  and 
wrritten  during  their  existence,  and  arose  directly  out  of 
the  methods  employed. 

The  teachers  of  Port  Royal  set  out  with  the  principle 
that  instead  of  making  learning  harsh  and  crabbed,  and 
wasting  valuable  years  over  the  first  elements,  it  was  right 
to  assist  the  students  as  much  as  possible,  and  to  make 
study  if  they  could  even  more  agreeable  than  play  or 
amusement.  For  this  reason  they  began  with  French,  but 
even  here  there  was  an  innovation.  In  teaching  the 
alphabet  they  called  the  letters  not  by  the  names  ordinarily 


130 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


given  to  them  by  grammarians,  but  by  the  sounds  which 
they  ultimately  hear  in  the  compounded  words,  so  that 
only  the  vowels  and  diphthongs  were  pronounced  alone, 
the  consonants  only  in  combination  with  them.  This 
method  is  attributed  to  Pascal,  but  it  may  be  much  older. 
To  Port  Royal  also  is  attributed  the  invention  of  steel 
pens,  a  great  boon  to  children.  After  learning  French 
the  pupils  read  translations  of  the  classics,  and  familiarized 
themselves  with  their  matter.  Then  Latin  was  attacked. 
Translations  were  made  from  French  into  Latin,  not  in 
writing,  but  viva  voce.  Instead  of  learning  the  elaborate 
grammar  of  Despautere,  then  in  vogue,  after  making 
themselves  acquainted  with  the  simple  declensions  and 
conjugations,  they  learned  lists  of  the  indispensable  nouns, 
pronouns,  verbs,  and  adverbs.  The  rules  were  supplied 
by  the  teacher  in  his  viva  voce  translation.  Thus  begin¬ 
ning  by  reading  the  authors  in  Latin  which  they  had 
already  learned  to  know  in  French,  and  being  guided  step 
by  step  by  a  sympathetic  master,  who  had  a  small  num¬ 
ber  of  pupils,  they  had  learned  a  good  deal  of  the  lan¬ 
guage  by  the  age  of  ten  or  twelve.  In  the  matter  of  Latin 
verses  they  were  far  in  advance  not  only  of  their  age,  but 
of  our  own.  Arnauld,  in  his  “  Reglement  d’Etudes,” 
says  that  it  is  waste  of  time  to  give  the  pupils  verses  to 
compose  at  home.  “  Among  seventy  or  eighty  boys  per¬ 
haps  two  or  three  will  get  something  from  them.  ”  The 
rest  will  only  torment  themsel  ves  to  no  purpose.  Arnauld 
admits  the  composition  of  occasional  extempore  verses  on 
a  given  subject.  In  Greek  they  were  guilty  of  a  great 
innovation.  They  taught  it  directly  from  the  French, 
and  not  through  the  medium  of  Latin.  The  Jesuits  stig¬ 
matized  this  as  impious.  “Is  it  not,”  they  said,  “  to 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOEIES. 


131 


destroy  at  the  same  time  the  French  and  Latin  languages, 
and  to  break  the  connection  which  has  lasted  for  aires 
between  France  and  Rome  ?”  Indeed,  as  Lancelot  re¬ 
marks,  and  as  many  others  have  thought  besides,  Greek 
is  easier  for  children  than  Latin.  The  words  are  hard, 
but  the  construction  is  simple.  No  book  exists  in  Latin 
so  easy  and  attractive  for  children  as  the  Odyssey  of 
Homer.  There  is  much  to  be  said  for  teaching  Greek 
before  Latin.  This  was  the  practice  of  the  great  Etienne, 
of  Bishop  Blomfield,  and  of  James  Mill. 

The  garden  of  Greek  roots,  however  useful  in  its  day, 
would  now  justly  incur  severe  criticism.  It  is  a  catalogue 
of  simple  Greek  words,  not  roots  in  the  strict  philological 
sense,  arranged  in  short  rhyming  stanzas  with  their  mean¬ 
ings  in  French.  M.  Buhner,  in  a  letter  to  Sainte  Beuve 
(Port  Royal,  iii.  620),  has  some  admirable  remarks  on 
this  book.  1.  Lancelot  takes  too  little  account  of  usage. 
Very  rare  words  are  found  side  by  side  with  very  com¬ 
mon  words,  and  some  of  the  words  included  have  even 
been  forged  by  the  grammarians.  2.  He  mixes  up  poet¬ 
ical  words  with  those  in  common  use.  3.  By  the  exigen¬ 
cies  of  rhyme  he  is  often  led  to  give  a  false  meaning.  In¬ 
deed  the  book  is  entirely  out  of  date,  and  is  rendered 
quite  useless  by  the  excellent  dictionaries  of  modern  times. 
Lancelot’s  rhymes  contain  about  3000  words,  whereas 
those  most  necessary  to  be  known  are  not  more  than  600 
or  700.  M.  Diibner  says,  at  the  same  time,  that  other 
reforms  which  he  himself  proposed  to  the  University  of 
Paris,  from  1856  to  1863,  were  similar  to  those  inaugu¬ 
rated  by  the  teachers  of  Port  Royal,  of  the  existence  of 
which  he  was  then  ignorant.  Among  these  were  to  at¬ 
tack  Greek  directly  and  not  through  the  medium  of  Latin  ; 


132 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


to  begin  to  read  immediately  after  having  learned  the  reg¬ 
ular  declensions  and  conjugations  ;  to  learn  the  syntax  by 
observation,  and  not  to  go  over  it  systematically  until  it 
had  become  familiar  by  usage  ;  to  read  a  great  deal,  not 
to  compose  until  the  power  of  easy  reading  had  been  ac¬ 
quired  ;  to  allow  the  pupils  to  choose  their  own  subjects 
for  composition  according  to  the  matters  which  most  in¬ 
terested  them  in  their  reading  ;  to  put  an  end  to  the  pro¬ 
digious  abuse  of  written  versions.  If  this  advice  had  been 
followed  the  classical  languages  would  have  had  a  better 
chance  than  they  now  have  of  holding  their  own  in  the 
French  curriculum. 

Another  feature  of  the  Port  Royal  education  is  the  im¬ 
portant  place  which  they  gave  to  modern  languages. 
Lancelot  wrote  methods  of  learning  both  Italian  and 
Spanish,  and  four  treatises  on  Latin,  French,  Italian,  and 
Spanish  poetry.  But  the  advanced  character  of  their 
teaching  is  best  seen  by  their  works  on  general  grammar 
and  on  logic,  two  models  of  good  sense  applied  to  sub¬ 
jects,  the  very  teaching  of  which  was  a  novelty.  The 
general  grammar  is  due  to  the  powerful  mind  of  Arnauld. 
He  attempted  to-  penetrate  into  the  philosophy  of  the  art 
of  speech,  the  science  of  language.  Bacon  had  before 
noted  a  work  of  this  kind  as  a  desideratum  to  be  filled  up. 
The  time  was  not  yet  come  when  it  could  be  done  with 
success.  Since  the  time  of  the  Jansenists  the  discovery 
of  Sanscrit  and  its  relations  to  Greek  and  Latin,  of  the 
Indian  conception  of  grammar  as  opposed  to  the  Alexan¬ 
drian,  the  clear  definition  of  the  principal  families  of  lan¬ 
guages,  and  the  relegation  of  Hebrew  to  its  proper  place 
among  them,  have  led  to  the  construction  of  a  science  of 
language  which  rests  on  fact  and  not  on  theory.  Yet 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


133 


Arnauld  deserves  great  credit  for  having  seen  that  a  sci¬ 
ence  of  comparative  grammar  was  an  intellectual  possi¬ 
bility.  The  Port  Royal  logic,  perhaps  the  most  cele¬ 
brated  of  their  works,  owes  its  origin  to  the  same  com¬ 
manding  mind.  It  is  based  on. the  “  Discours  de  la 
Methode”  of  Descartes,  and  on  the  essays  of  Pascal,  “  De 
l’Esprit  Geometrique,”  and  “  De  PArt  de  Persuader.” 
It  breaks  at  once  with  the  formal  logic  of  the  Schoolmen. 
It  divides  the  operations  of  the  mind  into  four.  1.  Con¬ 
ception  (or  ideas).  2.  Judgment  (or  propositions).  3. 
Reasoning.  4.  Arrangement  (or  method).  In  treating 
of  the  syllogism  it  remarks  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
errors  of  mankind  arise  rather  from  reasoning  on  false 
principles  than  from  reasoning  badly  on  the  principles 
which  they  adopt.  The  chapter  on  fallacies  is  particularly 
instructive.  The  examples  have  constant  reference  to 
practical  life  or  to  the  inculcation  of  good  moral  principles. 
The  “  Elements  of  Geometry,”  by  Arnauld,  which  were 
long  in  use  at  Port  Royal  before  they  were  printed,  were 
so  good  that  Pascal  destroyed  the  treatise  which  he  had 
composed  on  the  same  subject. 

The  discipline  of  Port  Royal  was  not  at  all  severe,  and 
was  maintained  by  the  self-sacrifice  of  those  who  conduct¬ 
ed  it.  The  charge  given  to  them  by  their  master  was  : 
Speak  little,  bear  much,  pray  more.  The  hours  of  work 
were  three  in  the  morning  and  two  and  a  half  in  the  after¬ 
noon.  Books  were  dispensed  with  as  far  as  possible,  and 
great  use  was  made  of  conversation.  Lessons  were  often 
given  in  the  open  air,  by  the  side  of  a  stream,  or  under 
the  shade  of  trees.  The  education  of  girls  was  cared  for 
by  Angelique  Arnauld  and  Jacqueline  Pascal  as  carefully 
as  Nicole  and  Lancelot  cared  for  that  of  the  boys.  What 


134 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


a  contrast  between  the  direct  attack  on  the  mind  and  in¬ 
telligence  of  the  pupil  made  in  these  schools  and  the  in¬ 
genious  waste  of  time  practised  by  the  ,1  esuits.  The  Jan- 
senists  were  the  best  hope  that  French  education  ever 
had,  and  their  success  was  too  much  for  the  jealousy  of 
their  rivals.  Neither  piety,  nor  wit,  nor  virtue  could  save 
them.  In  them  a  light  was  quenched  which  would  have 
given  a  different  direction  to  the  education  of  France  and 
of  Europe.  No  one  can  visit  without  emotion  the  retired 
cloister  which  lies  hidden  among  the  forests  of  Versailles, 
neglected  by  strangers,  scarcely  thought  of  by  its  neigh¬ 
bors,  where  the  brick  dove-cot,  the  pillars  of  the  church, 
the  trees  of  the  desert,  alone  remain  to  speak  to  us  of 
Pascal,  Arnauld,  Tillemont,  Racine,  and  the  Mere 
Angelique. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ROUSSEAU. 

Probably  no  work  on  the  subject  of  education  has 
produced  so  much  effect  as  the  “Emile”  of  Rousseau. 
It  appeared  in  1762,  just  one  hundred  years  before  the 
appointment  of  the  Public  School  Commission,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  a  new  departure  in  English  education. 
It  rapidly  made  the  tour  of  Europe  and  was  translated 
into  most  European  languages.  It  was  regarded  as  the 
herald  of  a  new  asm.  About  that  time  the  accession  of 

O 

Frederick  the  Great,  in  1740,  had  inaugurated  an  era  in 
which  philosophical  theories  of  social  regeneration  were 
at  last  to  be  put  into  practice.  The  Seven  Years’  War 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


135 


was  just  at  an  end,  and  Europe  was  entering  on  a  period 
of  comparative  peace,  which  was  employed  in  most  coun¬ 
tries  in  attempting  to  remedy  the  evils  of  generations  of 
misgovernment  by  arbitrary  legislation.  It  might  well  be 
thought  that  the  world  stood  at  the  threshold  of  a  new 
order.  The  abuses  which  afterward  resulted  in  the 
French  Revolution  were  acknowledged,  but  it  was  thought 
possible  to  remove  them  without  so  violent  a  convulsion. 
Nh  wonder  that  much,  far  too  much,  was  expected  from 
education.  Even  Rant,  the  philosopher  of  Kdnigsberg, 
more  regular  in  his  habits  than  the  town  hall  clock,  gave 
up  his  daily  walk  and  stayed  at  home  to  satiate  his  curi¬ 
osity  in  the  new  gospel  of  humanity.  The  effect  of  Vol¬ 
taire  and  Rousseau  upon  the  revolution  was  very  different. 
Voltaire,  by  nature  a  benevolent  man,  ever  ready  to  sacri¬ 
fice  himself  in  the  defence  of  innocence  or  weakness,  spent 
his  energies  in  destructive  criticism,  and  has  obtained  the 
reputation  of  a  cold  heartlessness  which  he  little  deserved. 
Rousseau,  weak,  sentimental,  and  selfish,  poured  out  in 
his  writings  that  universal  philanthropy,  that  love  for  the 
human  race  and  sympathy  with  its  sufferings,  which  he 
never  showed  in  any  action  of  his  life.  Thus  his  influ¬ 
ence  was  much  deeper  and  has  been  more  lasting  than 
that  of  Voltaire.  “  Emile”  is  not  a  constructive  book. 
It  is  difficult  to  extract  from  it  a  definite  theory  of  educa¬ 
tion,  but  its  insight  into  the  sorrows  of  childhood  and  the 
shortcomings  of  the  age,  the  enthusiasm  which  glows  in 
its  pages,  the  beauty  of  its  flowing  style,  have  been  most 
stimulating  to  thought  on  educational  subjects.  Rousseau’s 
views  are  not  entirely  original  ;  he  belongs  to  the  school 
of  education  which  I  have  called  Naturalistic.  It  is  easy 
to  trace  the  sequence  of  philosophical  tradition  from 


136 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


Rabelais  and  Montaigne  to  Locke  and  Rousseau.  His 
similarity  in  many  respects  to  Locke  may  have  made  his 
influence  less  felt  in  England  than  elsewhere.  But  he 
stands  astride  across  the  field  of  education.  Nothing 
comes  after  him  which  is  not  affected  by  him.  He  is  the 
progenitor  of  the  educational  theories  of  Kant,  Basedow, 
Pestalozzi  and  Frobel. 

It  will  be  most  convenient  to  give  first  an  outline  of  his 
general  principles,  and  then  to  proceed  to  a  more  detailed 
examination  of  his  book.  It  is  divided  into  four  main 
sections.  The  first  deals  with  the  earliest  childhood,  the 
second  conducts  Emile  to  his  twelfth  year,  the  third 
treats  of  the  period  from  the  twelfth  year  to  the  fifteenth, 
the  last  terminates  with  Emile’s  marriage.  Rousseau’s 
first  principle  is  that  man  is  by  nature  good,  therefore  the 
business  of  education  is  to  remove  everything  which  is 
likely  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  development  of  the 
human  nature.  Therefore  education  must  only  be  nega¬ 
tive.  The  object  of  education  is  not  to  form  a  citizen 
but  a  man.  The  poor  man  requires  no  education  because 
he  is  sufficiently  educated  by  the  condition  of  his  lot  ;  on 
the  other  hand  the  rich  man  must  be  educated  for  all  the 
circumstances  of  life.  There  are  three  forces  which  edu¬ 
cate  a  man  :  nature,  men,  and  things  5  of  these  only  the 
second  is  in  our  power. 

The  earliest  education  is  physical,  and  begins  immedi¬ 
ately  after  birth.  We  ought  to  satisfy  all  the  physical 
wants  of  a  child  because  they  are  natural,  and  allow  no 
restraint  of  physical  freedom  by  unnatural  compulsion, 
such  as  swaddling-clothes  or  the  like.  But  at  the  same 
time  we  must  draw  a  careful  distinction  between  natural 
wants  and  imaginary  wants  ;  those,  for  instance,  of  which 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOEIES. 


137 


the  child  demands  the  satisfaction  by  crying,  and  which 
have  their  foundation  in  temper.  These  we  must  pay  no 
attention  to,  as  they  will  grow  into  a  habit.  In  this 
begins  our  first  attempt  at  moral  education.  For  this 
reason  it  is  important  to  study  the  speech,  gestures,  and 
looks  of  children. 

The  second  period  of  childhood  begins  with  speech. 
We  must  not  begin  to  think  too  early  of  the  child’s  future 
destination,  but  to  allow  the  infant  to  amuse  itself  with 
childish  games.  Suffer  the  child  to  gratify  its  wishes  as 
far  as  you  can,  for  nature  has  given  it  the  power  of  grat¬ 
ifying  the  wishes  which  are  suitable  to  its  age.  The  hap¬ 
piness  of  men  upon  earth  depends  upon  the  equilibrium 
between  will  and  can.  On  this  also  depends  his  freedom, 
and  freedom  is  the  highest  blessing.  This  is  the  funda¬ 
mental  principle  of  education.  In  order  that  we  may  be 
independent  of  others  our  own  powers  must  be  properly 
developed.  Yet  if  we  develop  these  powers  either  too 
much  or  too  little  we  shall  make  the  child  wilful.  It  is 
best  to  command  as  little  as  possible  ;  let  the  child  be 
acted  upon  by  necessity.  Let  it  feel  the  pressure  exer¬ 
cised  by  things  and  circumstances.  Disobedience  is  its 
own  avenger,  and  makes  further  punishment  unnecessary. 
At  this  age,  during  the  second  period,  the  most  impor¬ 
tant  thing  is  the  training  of  the  senses,  but  at  the  same 
time  the  awakening  of  the  moral  feeling  is  to  be  confined 
within  the  strictest  limits.  The  first  moral  idea  of  which 
the  child  is  to  become  conscious  is  the  idea  of  property, 
otherwise  he  may  easily  contract  a  tendency  to  deceit  and 
falsehood.  Even  in  this  case,  the  only  punishment  which 
should  be  employed  are  the  inevitable  consequences  of  the 

transgression.  Try  to  protect  the  pupil  from  evil  conse- 
10 


138 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


quences  by  removing  from  him  every  occasion  of  com¬ 
mitting  wrong.  External  rewards  implant  the  seeds  of 
ambition,  and  are  therefore  to  be  rejected.  During  this 
second  period  instruction  is  to  be  confined  to  what  the 
child  can  understand,  that  is,  to  those  things  which  can 
be  perceived  by  the  senses.  Let  it  take  the  form  of  teach¬ 
ing  things.  The  fittest  subjects  for  instructions  are  meas¬ 
uring,  drawing,  geometry,  speaking,  and  singing.  Books 
are  altogether  harmful. 

We  now  reach  the  third  period,  that  is,  from  the  twelfth 
to  the  fifteenth  year.  It  is  the  season  of  serious  work, 
for  which  the  inborn  desire  of  knowledge  gives  strength 
and  pleasure.  Let  the  objects  of  instruction  be  actions, 
and  employ  no  moral  observations.  Let  the  child’s  knowl¬ 
edge  rest  on  his  own  observation,  and  not  on  belief  in  au¬ 
thority.  Let  him  learn  industry  and  mechanical  arts,  and 
let  each  child  be  taught  a  manual  trade.  The  fourth  period 
begins  at  fifteen.  Now  the  passions  are  awakened.  Do 
not  attempt  to  shroud  these  questions  in  mystery*  Moral 
considerations  now  come  into  the  foreground.  The  source 
of  all  passions  is  self-love.  This  is  natural,  but  it  easily 
degenerates  into  selfishness.  Let  the  pupil  become  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  life  of  society,  so  as  to  be  able  to  make 
a  choice  of  the  position  which  he  wishes  to  hold  in  it. 
At  any  rate,  this  will  give  him  the  knowledge  that  men 
seek  to  deceive  themselves  and  each  other.  Thus  he  will 
learn  to  despise  some,  but  at  the  same  time  to  compas¬ 
sionate  others.  The  study  of  history  exhibits  men  in 
their  true  light.  With  regard  to  religion  he  is  only  to 
learn  the  most  general  facts,  and  he  is  not  to  be  educated 
for  any  particular  sect.  His  taste  is  to  be  developed  by 
the  study  of  literature  or  by  the  stage. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


139 


Such  are  the  general  principles  which  we  find  in 
“  Emile.”  Here,  as  in  Rousseau’s  other  works,  we  come 
across  the  leading  idea  that  nature  is  of  itself  good,  but 
has  been  spoiled  by  the  work  of  man.  God  made  the 
country  and  man  made  the  town.  Civilization  and  the 
framework  of  society  have  been  the  sources  of  all  the 
misery  of  the  human  race.  The  only  remedy  for  this 
mischief  is  to  return  once  more  to  nature.  The  fallacy 
consists  in  this,  that  Rousseau’s  nature  never  did  and 
never  could  exist.  It  is  the  name  of  an  ideal  state  of 
things,  a  paradise  to  which  it  may  be  that  the  human  race 
is  attaining  by  slow  degrees,  but  to  which  it  has  never 
yet  attained.  Now  let  us  follow  out  these  principles  more 
closely  in  their  details.  First,  children  are  to  be  suckled 
by  their  mothers  ;  this  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  impor¬ 
tance.  The  mother  is  the  proper  nurse,  the  father  the 
proper  teacher,  of  his  child.  It  is  characteristic  of  Rous¬ 
seau  that,  although  he  rated  so  highly  the  duty  of  a 
father,  he  himself,  as  soon  as  his  children  were  born, 
deposited  them  in  the  foundling  hospital,  so  that  he  never 
knew  them  or  they  him.  The  new-born  child  is  to  be 
perfectly  unfettered,  he  is  to  have  no  padded  cap  or 
swaddling-clothes  ;  let  him  crawl  about  the  room  as  much 
as  he  pleases.  We  must  pay  attention  to  the  child’s  cries 
and  tears.  Those  tears,  to  which  you  pay  so  little  heed, 
are  the  first  signs  of  the  relation  of  man  to  his  environ¬ 
ment.  The  first  tears  of  a  child  are  entreaties.  If  you 
pay  no  attention  to  them  they  will  soon  become  com¬ 
mands.  If,  as  is  most  probable,  the  father  cannot  un¬ 
dertake  the  education  of  his  child,  he  must  intrust  the 
duty  to  some  one  else.  What  a  sacred  task  is  this  !  A 
man  can  only  direct  the  education  of  one  child.  He  is 


140 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


to  remain  with  him  for  five-and-twenty  years.  Therefore 
he  must  be  young,  even  as  young  as  possible.  Indeed, 
it  is  better  that  he  should  be  himself  a  child,  that  he  may 
become  the  companion  of  his  pupil,  and  gain  his  confi¬ 
dence  by  partaking  of  his  amusements.  Childhood  and 
manhood  have  not  things  enough  in  common  to  form  a 
very  solid  attachment  at  this  distance.  Children  some¬ 
times  caress  old  men,  but  they  never  love  them. 

ICmile  is  an  orphan,  without  father  or  mother.  He  is 
to  be  brought  up  by  a  tutor  of  this  intimate  kind  alone  in 
the  country.  Locke  advised  that  children  should  wear 
boots  with  holes  in  them  to  let  in  the  water,  and  accustom 
the  child  to  wet  feet.  Emile  is  to  wear  no  shoes  at  all, 
but  is  to  walk  barefoot.  He  is  never  to  use  a  candle  in 
the  dark,  but  to  walk  by  instinct.  He  is  to  have  no 
illness  and  to  need  no  doctor,  for  whose  art  Rousseau 
expresses  the  greatest  contempt.  He  is  to  bathe  every 
day  in  cold,  even  in  ice-cold  water.  Four  rules  are  to  be 
observed  in  the  management  of  very  young  children.  1. 
We  must  allow  them  the  use  of  everything  which  has 
been  given  them,  and  which  they  cannot  use  to  a  bad 
purpose.  2.  In  all  physical  matters  we  must  help  them, 
so  as  to  supply  their  deficiency  of  knowledge  or  strength. 
3.  We  must  confine  the  assistance  given  to  them  exactly 
to  what  is  necessary,  and  pay  no  attention  to  mere  humors 
or  foolish  requests.  4.  We  must  study  carefully  the 
speech  and  signs  of  children,  so  that,  at  an  age  when  they 
cannot  misrepresent  themselves,  we  may  distinguish  in 
their  wishes  between  that  which  springs  directly  from 
nature  and  that  which  is  the  result  of  imagination.  We 
must  not  be  in  too  great  a  hurry  to  make  children  speak. 
It  is  best  that  they  should  possess  only  a  small  vocabulary. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOKIES. 


141 


It  is  a  disadvantage  when  the  number  of  our  words  exceeds 
the  number  of  our  ideas,  when  we  can  express  more  than 
we  can  think.  The  practical  good  sense  of  peasants 
springs  to  a  great  extent  from  the  smallness  of  their  vocab¬ 
ulary.  They  have  fewer  ideas  but  a  clearer  conception  of 
their  meaning. 

A  child  learns,  at  about  the  same  time,  to  eat,  to  speak, 
to  walk  alone.  Then  begins  the  second  period  of  educa¬ 
tion.  The  child  must  begin  to  learn  to  suffer.  We  must 
employ  no  leading  strings,  wralking  baskets,  or  stuffed 
hats.  The  child  must  learn  the  limits  of  his  nature  by 
enduring  the  pain  of  transgressing  them.  It  is  by  this 
means  that  we  must  teach  obedience,  not  as  a  moral  duty. 
We  must  not  reason  with  children  of  this  age.  We  must 
remember  that  they  are  merely  children,  and  not  diminu¬ 
tive  men.  The  first  education  must  be  purely  negative. 
It  consists  not  in  teaching  to  distinguish  virtue  and  vice, 
but  in  securing  the  heart  from  faults  and  the  understand¬ 
ing  from  error.  The  educator  is  to  be  the  passive  spec¬ 
tator  of  the  work  of  nature.  His  duty  is  to  put  the  child 
on  the  track  of  discoveries  which  he  is  to  make  by  him¬ 
self.  He  is  to  interfere  only  with  a  few  timid  and  re¬ 
served  explanations  to  assist  the  pupil  in  interpreting  the 
lessons  of  nature.  None  of  the  intellectual  exercises  ordi¬ 
narily  employed  for  children  of  this  age  find  favor  in 
Rousseau’s  eyes.  His  education  is  to  be  concerned  with 
things  alone.  He  forbids  the  study  of  languages.  At  the 
age  of  fifteen  Rutile  is  only  to  know  one  language.  If 
he  knew  more  he  would  have  to  compare  ideas  of  which 
he  is  incapable.  Maps  of  unknown  countries  have  no 
real  meaning  for  a  child  of  this  age.  History  is  also  pro¬ 
scribed,  for  the  child  cannot  understand  the  relations  of 


142 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


historical  events.  The  whole  of  literature  is  banished 
from  the  curriculum.  l£mile,  at  twelve  years  of  age,  is 
scarcely  to  know  what  a  book  is.  His  whole  education  is 
to  be  physical.  He  is  to  be  strong  and  healthy  in  order 
that  he  may  become  wise  and  sensible.  He  should  be  in 
constant  motion.  His  clothes  must  be  loose  to  allow  for 
the  growth  of  his  body.  He  is  to  wear  little  or  nothing 
on  his  head.  He  is  to  drink  cold  water  when  he  is  hot. 
He  is  allowed  a  good  spell  of  sleep,  because  he  needs  it. 
He  is  to  be  as  much  at  home  in  the  water  as  on  land. 
The  faculties  to.  be  educated  at  this  period  are  the  senses. 
Let  him  learn  to  measure,  number,  weigh,  and  compare. 
In  this  Rousseau  was  in  advance  of  his  age.  Basedow, 
and  Pestalozzi,  and  most  of  the  moderns,  are  agreed  that 
the  senses  cannot  be  properly  developed  without  education. 
We  cannot  learn  how  to  touch,  see,  or  hear  without  hav¬ 
ing  been  taught. 

This  kind  of  education  has  brought  I^mile  to  be  twelve 
years  old.  Let  us  see  to  what  point  of  development  he 
has  arrived.  His  bearing  is  full  of  confidence,  his  nature 
is  free  and  open,  but  not  overbearing  or  conceited,  his 
speech  is  simple  and  always  to  the  purpose,  his  ideas  are 
limited  but  distinct,  he  knows  nothing  by  heart  but  much 
by  experience.  The  only  book  he  has  studied  is  the  book 
of  nature.  His  memory  is  not  so  good  as  his  judgment, 
he  knows  only  one  language,  but  understands  what  he 
says.  He  is  not  the  slave  of  routine  or  custom,  to-day 
is  not  the  same  as  yesterday.  He  cares  nothing  for 
authority  or  example,  he  does  and  says  what  pleases  him. 
His  ideas  are  suitable  to  his  age.  Order  him  to  do  any¬ 
thing,  he  will  not  understand  you  ;  ask  him  to  gratify 
you  and  he  will  hasten  to  do  what  you  wish.  He  knows 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


143 


the  limit  of  his  powers,  so  that  he  never  undertakes  any¬ 
thing  which  he  cannot  do.  He  has  an  observing,  pene¬ 
trating  eye.  He  never  asks  useless  questions,  but  finds  out 
things  for  himself.  He  knows  no  difference  between 
work  and  play  ;  they  are  both  alike  to  him.  He  is  first- 
rate  in  running,  jumping,  and  judging  distances.  His 
talents  and  experience  fit  him  to  lead  his  companions. 
He  takes  the  lead  of  others  without  wishing  to  command  ; 
they  obey  him  without  remarking  it.  He  has  lived  the 
life  of  a  child.  He  has  attained  completeness  without 
sacrificing  his  happiness.  Should  death  carry  him  off  at 
this  age  we  shall  not  have  at  the  same  time  to  bewail  his 
life  and  his  death.  We  shall  be  able  to  say,  “  He  has 
not,  by  our  fault,  lost  anything  which  Nature  had  given 
him.” 

The  interval  between  twelve  and  fifteen  is  to  be  devoted 
to  positive  instruction.  The  turmoil  of  the  passions 
begins  to  threaten  us.  We  must  endeavor  to  turn  aside 
their  effects  by  labor  of  the  mind.  Rousseau  recognizes 
the  fact  that  no  time  must  now  be  lost,  but  he  does  not 
excuse  himself  for  having  lost  so  much  already.  The  in¬ 
struction  which  he  contemplates  is  not  a  very  extended 
one.  In  the  dispute.,  which  is  always  renewed,  as  to 
whether  education  should  be  extensive  or  intensive, 
whether  it  should  aim  at  imparting  much  of  one  thing  or 
something  of  many,  Rousseau  declares  himself  on  the  in¬ 
tensive  side.  Teach  a  little,  and  that  little  well.  But 
this  teaching  is  to  proceed  as  far  as  possible  by  the  way 
of  nature,  and  is  to  be  conducted  as  far  as  may  be  without 
books.  “  I  hate  books,”  Rousseau  cries  ;  “  they  only 
teach  people  to  talk  about  what  they  do  not  understand. 
We  must  rely  on  the  child’s  natural  thirst  for  knowledge. 


144 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


The  world  of  intellect  is  as  yet  unknown  to  the  child,  his 
thoughts  do  not  reach  farther  than  his  eyes,  his  under¬ 
standing  only  extends  as  far  as  the  space  that  he  can 
measure.  In  the  first  activity  of  the  intellect  the  senses 
must  be  the  guides.  The  child’s  book  is  the  world,  and 
facts  are  the  objects  of  instruction.  Direct  the  attention 
of  your  pupil  to  the  appearances  of  nature,  and  he  will 
soon  begin  to  desire  knowledge,  but  if  you  wish  to  stim¬ 
ulate  that  desire  you  must  not  be  too  ready  to  satisfy  it. 
Ask  your  pupil  questions  which  are  at  the  level  of  his 
comprehension,  and  let  him  answer  them  by  himself. 
Then  if  he  comes  to  possess  knowledge  it  will  not  be  be¬ 
cause  you  had  put  it  in  his  mind,  but  because  he  has  won 
it  by  himself.  Let  him  not  learn  science,  let  him  find  it  out 
by  himself.  If  you  allow  authority  to  take  the  place  of 
reason  in  his  eyes,  he  will  never  use  reason,  he  will  only 
be  the  plaything  of  other  people’s  views. 

Using  such  methods  as  these,  which  are  singularly  in 
accordance  with  the  best  means  of  teaching  employed  in 
our  own  day,  as  they  have  been  popularized  by  Pestalozzi 
and  Frobel,  Rousseau  advises  us  to  teach  our  pupil  geom- 
etry,  astronomy,  geography,  and  p'hysics.  Astronomy 
is  to  be  taught  by  observation  of  the  heavens,  and  geome¬ 
try  in  the  same  manner.  iEmile  receives  practical  instruc¬ 
tion  in  geography  by  having  to  find  his  way  home  from 
the  centre  of  a  thick  forest  at  dinner  time.  He  is  made 
to  interest  himself  in  physics  by  the  movements  of  an  arti¬ 
ficial  duck  swimming  in  a  basin  of  water  at  a  fair.  Chem¬ 
istry  is  taught  him  by  the  comparison  of  bad  and  good 
wine.  Thus  far  we  have  been  able  to  dispense  with 
books.  “  But,”  says  Rousseau,  “  if  you  must  absolutely 
have  books,  there  is  one  which  furnishes  in  my  opinion  the 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


145 


most  happy  treatise  of  natural  education.  This  book  will 
be  the  first  which  my  Emile  will  read.  It  alone  will  form 
for  a  long  time  the  whole  of  his  library,  and  it  shall  always 
hold  in  it  a  distinguished  place.  It  shall  be  the  text  to 
which  all  our  conversation  on  natural  science  shall  serve 
us  as  a  commentary.  It  shall  during  our  progress  serve 
as  a  proof  of  the  condition  of  our  judgment,  and  as  long 
as  our  taste  remains  unspoiled,  the  reading  of  it  will  always 
be  pleasing  to  us.  What  then  is  this  wonderful  book  ? 
Is  it  Aristotle,  is  it  Pliny,  is  it  Buffon  ?  No,  it  is  Rob¬ 
inson  Crusoe.  Robinson  Crusoe  on  his  island,  deprived 
of  the  assistance  of  his  fellow -men  and  of  the  instruments 
necessary  for  all  the  arts,  but  nevertheless  providing  for 
his  subsistence  and  even  procuring  some  degree  of  com¬ 
fort,  this  is  an  interesting  object  for  every  age,  and  which 
can  be  made  pleasing  to  children  in  a  thousand  ways.  ” 
The  reading  of  Robinson  Crusoe  is  to  impress  Emile 
with  the  dignity  of  labor,  and  of  the  various  occupations 
of  mankind.  Also  the  knowledge  of  a  trade  is  to  pro¬ 
vide  a  shelter  for  him  in  time  of  need,  when  a  revolution 
destroys  his  ordinary  resources.  “We  are  approaching,  ’  ’ 
Rousseau  says,  “  the  era  of  revolutions,  who  can  say  what 
will  then  become  of  you  ?  Everything  which  men  have 
made  men  can  also  destroy  ;  the  only  ineffaceable  char¬ 
acters  are  those  impressed  by  nature,  and  nature  makes 
neither  princes,  nor  rich  men,  nor  great  lords.  What 
then  in  this  time  of  abasement  will  become  of  the  satrap 
whom  you  have  brought  up  for  greatness  alone  ?  AVliat 
in  this  state  of  poverty  will  become  of  this  publican  who 
cannot  live  except  on  gold  ?  Happy  is  the  man  who  can 
surrender  the  position  which  deserts  him,  and  can  remain 
a  man  in  spite  of  fortune.”  Rousseau  adds  that  in  his 


146 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


opinion  the  great  monarchies  of  Europe  have  but  a  little 
time  to  last. 

How  are  we  to  classify  these  occupations  ?  The  most 
respectable  of  all  is  agriculture,  next  is  the  trade  of  the 
blacksmith,  next  carpentry,  and  so  on.  Labor  is  a  sacred 
duty  for  men  in  societies.  Rich  or  poor,  powerful  or 
weak,  every  idle  citizen  is  worthless.  Familiarity  with 
labor  will  also  have  the  advantage  of  diminishing  the  prej¬ 
udice  of  the  rich  toward  the  poor.  Still  it  is  difficult  to 
find  a  suitable  trade.  ICmile  is  not  to  be  a  weaver  or  a 
stone-mason,  which  are  stupid  trades  ;  nor  a  bricklayer  or 
shoemaker,  which  are  dirty  occupations  ;  nor  a  hair¬ 
dresser,  who  is  the  slave  of  civilization.  He  is  not  to  be 
a  lockmaker,  but  a  carpenter.  With  this  ends  the  third 
period  of  education.  Emile  has  but  little  knowledge, 
but  it  is  all  his  own  ;  he  knows  nothing  by  halves.  The 
most  important  thing  is  that  there  is  much  of  which  he 
knows  nothing.  He  has  an  open,  intelligent,  teachable 
mind.  He  does  not  even  know  the  name  of  history,  nor 
what  metaphysics  and  morality  mean.  He  knows  the 
essential  relations  between  men  and  things,  but  nothing  of 
the  moral  relations  between  man  and  man.  He  is  labori¬ 
ous,  temperate,  patient,  firm,  full  of  courage.  His  im¬ 
agination  never  exaggerates  dangers.  He  knows  what 
death  is,  and  when  he  must  die  he  will  die  without  a 
struggle  and  without  a  groan.  He  has  all  the  virtues 
which  have  reference  to  himself.  It  is  only  the  social 
virtues  in  which  he  is  deficient.  Thus  far  he  has  lived 
content,  happy,  and  free  as  far  as  nature  has  permitted  it. 

From  the  period  of  fifteen  to  twenty,  Emile  is  to  be¬ 
come  the  most  tender,  the  most  sentimental,  the  most 
religious  of  mankind.  In  his  case  there  are  special  diffi- 


EDUCATIONAL  TIIEOKIES. 


147 


culties.  He  has  neither  relations  nor  friends  ;  he  has  no 
idea  of  love.  Most  people  would  say  that  a  child  should  be 
taught  to  love  from  the  very  first.  Rousseau  allows  l£ mile 
to  grow  up  with  a  chasm  in  his  heart.  “  Here  begins 
the  ieal  education.”  The  birth  of  the  passions  comes  in 
to  help  us,  but  they  must  be  kept  under  proper  control. 
It  is  the  quintessence  of  wisdom  to  know  how  to  do  this, 
and  we  must  try  above  all  to  teach  two  things  :  1.  The 

true  relations  existing  among  men,  not  only  in  the  race 
but  in  individuals.  2.  The  regulation  of  all  the  affections 
of  the  soul  according  to  the  circumstances  of  their  rela¬ 
tions.  The  following  maxims  will  help  us  :  1.  The  hu¬ 
man  heart  is  not  naturally  disposed  to  place  itself  in  the 
position  of  those  persons  who  are  happier  than  ourselves, 
but  only  in  the  place  of  those  who  are  more  miserable. 
It  follows  from  this,  that  to  instruct  a  young  man  in  the 
principles  of  humanity  we  ought  not  to  make  him  admire 
the  brilliant  lot  of  others,  but  show  him  by  the  dark  side 
what  he  has  to  fear.  It  will  then  follow  that  he  will 
make  a  road  to  happiness  for  himself,  and  will  take  his 
own  line  and  not  follow  any  one  else.  2.  A.  man  only 
pities  in  the  case  of  others  those  evils  from  which  he 
does  not  believe  himself  to  be  exempt.  So  do  not  accus¬ 
tom  your  pupil  to  gaze  at  the  sufferings  of  the  unfortunate 
and  the  labors  of  the  poor  from  the  height  of  his  own 
glory,  and  do  not  expect  to  teach  him  to  be  sorry  for  the 
poor  if  he  considers  them  as  strangers  to  himself.  Make 
him  understand  that  the  lot  of  these  unhappy  people  mav 
pei haps  be  his  own,  that  all  their  evils  are  under  his  feet, 
and  that  a  thousand  unforeseen  and  inevitable  events  may 
plunge  him  into  them  from  one  moment  to  another.  3. 
The  third  maxim  is,  “  The  pity  which  we  feel  for  the 


148 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


misfortunes  of  another  is  not  measured  by  the  quantity  of 
the  evil,  but  by  the  tenderness  we  feel  for  those  who 
suffer  it.”  It  is  natural  that  a  man  should  lay  very  little 
stress  on  the  happiness  of  those  whom  he  despises.  Teach 
your  pupil  to  love  all  men,  even  those  who  despise  hu¬ 
manity.  Manage  so  that  he  places  himself  in  no  class, 
but  discovers  his  relations  with  all.  Speak  in  his  presence 
with  emotion,  and  even  with  compassion,  of  the  human 
race,  but  never  with  contempt.  As  a  man  yourself,  take 
care  not  to  dishonor  the  class  to  which  you  belong. 

By  these  and  similar  ways  you  will  penetrate  into  the 
heart  of  the  young  man,  to  work  out  of  it  the  first  mo¬ 
tions  of  nature,  and  to  take  care  that  it  shall  unfold  itself 
and  beat  for  its  fellow-men.  Yet  be  on  your  guard 
against  mingling  personal  interest  with  these  emotions  ; 
and,  above  all,  keep  at  a  distance  all  vanity,  emulation, 
and  love  of  praise,  all  those  feelings  which  compel  us  to 
compare  ourselves  with  others.  The  cause  of  all  our 
passions,  the  only  one  which  is  born  with  a  man,  and 
which  never  leaves  him  during  life,  is  self-love.  It  is  the 
original  inborn  passion  which  precedes  all  others,  of 
which  all  the  rest  are  modifications.  Self-love  is  good  if 
it  is  subordinate  to  order.  Each  man  must  naturally  take 
the  greatest  interest  in  its  maintenance.  We  must  love 
ourselves  above  everything,  and,  as  the  immediate  conse¬ 
quence  of  this  feeling,  we  love  everything  which  serves 
for  our  preservation.  We  seek  what  is  useful  to  us,  but 
we  love  the  man  who  is  useful  to  us  ;  we  avoid  what  does 
us  harm,  but  we  hate  him  who  does  us  harm.  £  mile  has 
up  to  the  present  moment  thought  only  of  himself. 
When  he  first  looks  at  his  neighbor  he  will  compare  him¬ 
self  with  him,  and  this  comparison  will  make  him  desire 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


149 


to  take  the  first  place.  At  this  point  self-love  is  changed 
into  selfishness,  and  all  the  passions  connected  with  it  ap¬ 
pear  in  jgerm.  Jn  order  to  combat  these  evils,  develop 
before  Emile  the  picture  of  society  as  a  whole.  Let  him 
learn  that  man  is  good  by  nature,  but  that  society  spoils 
him.  Let  him  find  in  men’s  prejudices  the  source  of  all 
their  faults.  Let  him  never  scorn  individuals,  but  let  him 
despise  the  multitude.  Let  him  learn  that  nearly  all  men 
wear  the  same  mask,  but  that  there  are  faces  more  beau¬ 
tiful  than  the  masks  which  cover  them.  This  knowledge 
of  men  is  best  learned  from  history,  for  we  must  see  men 
in  action.  In  life  we  only  hear  them  speak,  for  they  dis¬ 
close  their  speech,  but  conceal  their  actions.  In  history 
the  veil  is  drawn  away,  and  we  judge  men  by  their  deeds. 
\  et  the  most  dangerous  writers  of  history  for  the  young 
are  those  who  pronounce  judgments.  Let  the  young  man 
learn  the  facts  and  judge  for  himself.  In  this  way  he 
will  learn  how  to  understand  men.  That  your  pupil  may 
not  believe  that  he  is  better  than  others,  let  him  be  shown 
how  he  is  subject  to  the  same  weaknesses  and  follies  as 
the  men  for  whom  he  feels  compassion. 

Kousseau  next  goes  on  to  say  that  many  will  have 
wondered  why  he  has  allowed  the  whole  of  the  early  life 
of  his  pupil  to  pass  without  speaking  to  him  of  religion. 
At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  did  not  know  that  he  had  a  soul  j 
perhaps  even  at  eighteen  it  is  too  soon  for  him  to  learn 
it,  for  if  he  learns  it  before  the  proper  time  there  is  a 
danger  that  he  will  never  know  it.  L>ut  as  religion  is  the 
regulator  of  the  passions,  we  ought  now  to  instruct  him 
in  it.  To  what  sect  then  shall  we  lead  the  child  of 
nature  ?  W£e  will  not  make  him  join  any  sect  in  particu¬ 
lar,  but  we  will  place  him  in  the  position  to  choose  that 


150 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


one  to  which  the  best  use  of  his  reason  must  lead  him. 
This  latest  period  of  Emile’s  education  is  to  be  devoted 
to  reading  and  the  acquirement  of  taste.  He  is  to  study 
history  and  eloquence,  and  to  frequent  the  theatre.  He 
is  to  make  up  for  lost  time  in  the  study  of  books. 

The  education  of  Emile,  the  ideal  man,  is  followed  by 
that  of  Sophie,  the  ideal  woman.  But  Rousseau  does 
not  conceive  that  the  woman  is  educated  for  any  other 
purpose  than  to  be  suited  to  the  man.  He  says,  ‘ 1  All  the 
education  of  women  ought  to  be  relative  to  men.  To 
please  them,  to  be  useful  to  them,  to  make  themselves 
loved  by  them,  to  bring  them  up  when  they  are  little,  to 
care  for  them  when  they  are  grown  up,  to  counsel  them, 
to  console  them,  to  render  their  lives  agreeable  and  pleas¬ 
ant — such  have  been  the  duties  of  women  in  all  time.  ’  ’  If 
we  do  not  accede  to  this  principle  we  shall  not  go 
straight  to  our  point.  Sophie  is  to  learn  religion  from 
her  mother.  She  is  to  pay  special  attention  to  the  duties 
of  housekeeping,  but  in  all  this  she  is  to  be  charming. 
She  is  to  practise  lace-making  because  she  looks  pretty 
while  she  is  doing  it  ;  she  is  to  let  the  dinner  fall  into  the 
fire  rather  than  stain  her  apron  or  her  cuffs.  ICmile 
meets  Sophie,  falls  in  love  with  her,  and,  after  two  years 
spent  in  travelling,  returns  and  marries  her. 

We  shall  see  something  of  the  influence  of  Emile  in 
future  chapters.  Rousseau  tried  to  answer  cant  by  para¬ 
dox.  He  violently  opposed  the  current  practices  of  his 
day  in  education  by  sketching  out  a  scheme  equally  full 
of  contradictions,  and  equally  unsatisfactory  in  results. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


151 


CHAPTER  X. 

PESTALOZZI. 

John  Henry  Pestalozzi  was  born  on  January  12,  1746. 
His  father  died  when  he  was  five  years  old.  “  I  grew 
up,”  he  said,  “  by  the  side  of  the  best  of  mothers — as  a 
mother’s  child.  Yeqr  after  year  I  never  came  out  from 
behind  the  stove.  In  short,  all  means  and  stimulus  for 
the  development  of  manly  strength,  manly  experience, 
manly  ways  of  thinking,  and  manly  practice  were  wanting 
to  me  just  in  proportion  as  I  needed  them  by  the  pecul¬ 
iarity  and  weakness  of  my  individual  character.  I  saw 
the  world  only  in  the  narrow  confinement  of  my  mother’s 
chamber,  and  in  the  equally  great  confinement  of  my  life 
in  the  schoolroom  ;  the  real  life  of  men  was  as  strange  to 
me  as  if  I  did  not  live  in  the  world  in  which  I  dwelt.  In 
all  games  I  was  the  most  awkward  and  most  helpless  of 
all  my  schoolmates,  and  yet  I  wished  to  excel  in  them 
above  the  rest.  That  often  gave  them  occasion  to  laugh 
at  me.  One  of  them  gave  me  the  nickname  ‘  Wonderful 
Harry  from  fool’s  town.’  Most  of  them  were  pleased 
with  my  good  temper  and  serviceableness,  but  they  knew 
my  one-sidedness  and  want  of  skill,  and  my  thoughtless¬ 
ness  in  everything  which  did  not  interest  me  much.” 
He  complains  that  his  teaching  was  too  much  occupied 
with  words  and  fancies.  “  That  went  so  far,”  he  says, 
“  that  we  imagined  in  our  boyish  days  that  we  could  pre¬ 
pare  ourselves  by  the  superficial  school  knowledge  of  the 
life  of  Greek  and  Roman  citizens  for  the  restricted  life  of 
citizens  in  a  Swiss  canton.  When  Rousseau’s  ‘  fimilc  ’ 


152 


educational  theories. 


apoeared,  my  very  unpractical  imagination  was  seized  by 
this  very  unpractical  book.  I  compared  the  education 
which  I  received  in  the  corner  of  my  mother’s  chamber 
and  in  the  school  with  that  which  Rousseau  demanded 
for  the  education  of  his  Emile.  Home  education  and 
the  public  education  of  all  classes  seemed  to  me  to  be  a 
crippled  existence,  which  could  be  cured  of  the  misery  of 
its  real  position  by  the  lofty  ideas  of  Rousseau.  Rous¬ 
seau’s  ideas  of  freedom  awakened  in  me  a  desire  to  serve 
the  people  with  greater  earnestness.  I  determined  to 
give  up  the  career  of  a  clergyman  and  to  study  law,  which 
might  open  to  me  a  sphere  of  greater  usefulness  to  my 
country.”  A  friend  of  Pestalozzi’s,  by  name  Bluntschli, 
dying  at  this  time,  sent  for  him  on  his  death-bed,  and 
said  to  him,  “  I  am  dying  and  you  will  be  left  alone. 
Take  care  to  throw  yourself  into  no  line  of  life  which 
may  be  dangerous  to  you  from  your  good  nature  and  over- 
confidence.  Look  out  for  a  quiet  way  of  life,  and  under¬ 
take  no  adventure  unless  you  have  by  your  side  a  cool- 
headed  man  who  knows  men  and  things,  and  on  whom 
you  may  depend.” 

Never  was  advice  more  urgently  needed.  Shortly  after 
this  Pestalozzi  fell  ill  ;  on  his  recovery  he  put  away  his 
books  and  determined  to  devote  himself  to  an  agricultural 
life.  In  the  north  of  Switzerland,  not  far  from  the  town 
of  Brugg  and  the  castle  of  Hapsburg,  he  purchased  some 
acres  of  barren  land  which  he  called  Neuhof.  He  built  a 
house  in  the  Italian  style  better  than  he  could  afford. 
Here  he  married  in  1769.  The  money  necessary  for  the 
farm  was  advanced  by  a  Zurich  house  of  business.  But 
the  plan  entirely  failed.  In  Pestalozzi’s  words,  the 
dream  of  his  life,  the  hope  of  an  important  and  beneficent 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


153 


sphere  of  labor,  which  was  centred  in  a  quiet,  peaceful 
domestic  circle,  had  entirely  disappeared  ;  but  his  spirit 
was  m  no  way  broken.  Assisted  by  his  noble-hearted 
wi  e  e  established  an  institute  for  the  poor,  to  which 
children  were  sent  from  Zurich,  Berne,  and  Bale.  He 
soon  had  fifty  children  to  look  after,  chiefly  homeless 
wastrels.  His  idea  was  to  employ  them  in  summer  with 
e  d  work,  m  winter  with  spinning  and  other  handicrafts. 
He  also  attempted  to  teach  them,  and  laid  great  stress  on 
t  eir  practice  m  speaking  ;  but  this  plan  also  failed.  The 
children  were  unaccustomed  to  discipline,  and  came  to  no 
good,  and  sometimes  ran  away  as  soon  as  they  had  re¬ 
ceived  new  clothes.  Pestalozzi  preferred  to  share  his 
last  crust  with  his  children  rather  than  give  the  institute 
up.  He  “  lived  like  a  beggar  to  teach  beggars  how  men 

^  money,  bread,  wood,  and  everything 
failed,  and  the  scheme  had  to  be  surrendered.  His 
friends  believed  that  it  was  all  over  with  him,  and  that 
they  could  not  help  him  any  more.  With  his  beggar’s 
staff  m  Ins  hand,  and  with  no  human  assistance  left  for 
him  in  the  world,  he  determined  in  himself,  “  I  will  be 
a  schoolmaster.”  He  devoted  himself  to  raising  others 
from  the  abyss  into  which  he  had  himself  fallen.  His 
wife  stood  by  him  in  his  trouble.  He  sought  refuge  with 
,  lsehn>  a  writer  of  some  reputation.  He  came  to 

his  house  without  shoes,  having  given  the  silver  buckles 
to  a  beggar  on  the  way. 

Pestalozzi ’s  first  work  was  published  in  Iselin’s  “  Ephem- 
erides.  It  was  called  “  Die  Abendstiinden  eines 
Ansiedlers”  (“  The  Evening  Hours  of  a  Recluse”).  It 
consists  of  a  series  of  detached  thoughts  on  the  princi¬ 
ples  of  education.  It  is  the  first  sketch  of  the  edifice  to 


154 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


the  erection  of  which  Pestalozzi  devoted  his  life.  Edu¬ 
cation  in  the  f amity,  love  as  the  sun  of  the  house,  are 
the  necessary  conditions  of  all  success  in  education. 
Knowledge  of  things  and  complete  serviceableness  in  the 
affairs  of  life,  the  absence  of  mere  swallowing  of  words, 
childish  innocence  and  belief  in  God  as  the  most  pene¬ 
trating  influence  in  the  life  of  men  and  as  the  Alpha  and 
Omega  of  education — such  are  the  main  principles  on 
which  he  insists.  A  year  later  Pestalozzi  wrote  another 
work,  which  speedily  became  known  through  the  whole 
of  Europe.  The  Economical  Society  of  Berne  gave  him 
their  gold  medal,  Bonstetten  invited  him  to  come  and 
work  as  a  minister,  Count  Zinzendorf  the  Moravian  asked 
him  to  Vienna,  Leopold,  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  begged 
him  to  come  and  stay  with  him  in  Florence.  Such  in 
those  days  was  the  enthusiasm  for  new  ideas  among  the 
rulers  of  the  world.  The  name  of  this  new  work  was 
“  Leonard  and  Gertrude — a  book  for  the  people.’’  Pes¬ 
talozzi  wrote  it  in  a  few  weeks,  without  knowing,  as  he 
says,  what  he  was  doing.  “  I  felt  its  value,  but  only 
like  a  man  who  feels  the  worth  of  happiness  in  sleep.” 
The  object  of  the  book  was  to  bring  about  a  better  edu¬ 
cation  for  the  people,  arising  out  of  their  true  position 
and  their  natural  circumstances.  ‘  ‘  This  book,  ’  ’  he  says, 

1  ‘  was  my  first  word  to  the  heart  of  the  poor  and  forsaken 
in  the  land.  It  was  my  first  word  to  the  mothers  of  the 
country,  and  to  the  heart  that  God  gave  them  to  be  to 
their  families  what  no  man  on  earth  can  be  in  their 
place.”  Education  begins,  as  in  the  scheme  of  Rous¬ 
seau,  with  the  cradle.  Gertrude,  the  wife  of  the  good- 
natured  but  weak-minded  Leonard,  is  the  pattern  of  all 
mothers.  Pestalozzi  describes  how  she  manages  her 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


155 


home,  brings  up  and  educates  her  children.  He  wishes 
above  everything  to  instil  necessary  knowledge  into 
children  by  good  elementary  education.  If  this  could 
only  begin  properly  and  go  on  properly,  an  entirely  new 
race  would  grow  up,  independent  in  character,  full  of  in¬ 
sight  and  cleverness.  A  people  thus  educated  would  be 
able  to  hold  its  own  against  oppressors.  But  elementary 
teachers  were  wanting  who  both  could  and  would  edu¬ 
cate  in  this  way.  There  were  no  seminaries  or  normal 
schools  where  such  children  could  be  educated.  There¬ 
fore,  Pestalozzi  said,  “  I  will  put  the  education  of  the 
people  into  the  hands  of  the  mothers.  I  will  transplant  it 
from  the  school  to  the  house.”  But  how  can  a  mother 
teach  what  she  does  not  understand  ?  Pestalozzi  tried  to 
supply  this  want  of  knowledge  and  experience.  A 
mother  who  follows  exactly  the  principles  of  his  book 
could  educate  her  children  as  well  as  if  she  were  the  pos¬ 
sessor  of  all  the  sciences. 

After  the  appearance  of  “  Leonard  and  Gertrude,” 
Pestalozzi  spent  seventeen  more  years  in  Neuhof,  making 
thirty  years  in  all.  He  wrote  several  books  and  founded 
a  weekly  paper  called  the  “  Schweizer  Blatt.”  At  one 
time  he  joined  the  order  of  the  Illuminati,  but  soon  left 
them,  because  he  found  that  they  could  not  be  trusted  to 
fulfil  their  promises.  But  these  were  troubled  times  in 
Europe.  By  the  year  1798  the  French  Revolution  had 
produced  serious  results  in  Switzerland.  An  Helvetic 
Republic  had  been  formed,  governed  by  five  directors, 
one  of  whom  was  Legrand,  a  friend  of  Pestalozzi’ s.  He 
was  an  old  man  of  eighty,  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  im¬ 
provement  of  the  people,  and  he  had  been  at  one  time  a 
friend  and  a  co-operator  of  Oberlin.  Pestalozzi  attached 


156 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


himself  with  eagerness  to  the  new  doctrines.  He  deter¬ 
mined  to  be  a  schoolmaster,  and  was  on  the  point  of  set¬ 
ting  np  an  establishment  in  Aargau  ;  but  on  September 
9.  1198,  Stanz,  a  town  on  the  Lake  of  Lucerne,  was 
burned  by  the  French.  The  whole  canton  of  Unterwal- 
den  was  laid  waste,  and  a  number  of  destitute  orphans 
wandered  about  with  no  roof  over  their  heads.  Pesta- 
lozzi  was  sent  by  the  Directory  to  be  a  father  to  these 
orphans.  He  went,  accompanied  by  a  housekeeper.  In 
the  convent  of  St.  Ursula  he  collected  eighty  beggar 
children  from  four  to  ten  years  of  age.  The  account  he 
gives  of  their  condition  is  terrible.  Some  were  wasted 
with  disease,  some  were  full  of  mistrust,  others  of  over¬ 
boldness,  others  crushed  by  their  misfortunes  ;  a  few 
children  of  tenderer  nurture  shrunk  from  contact  with 
their  rough  companions.  There  was  little  ground  to  wmrk 
upon,  either  of  mind  or  body.  They  were  very  igno¬ 
rant  :  scarcely  one  in  ten  knew  the  alphabet.  Pestalozzi 
tried  to  combine  learning  with  handiwork.  He  set  chil¬ 
dren  to  teach  children,  according  to  the  method  afterward 
introduced  by  Bell  and  Lancaster.  He  had  to  bring 
discipline  to  bear  upon  this  untutored  mass.  He  saw 
that  it  was  necessary  to  imitate  the  advantages  which  do¬ 
mestic  education  has  over  public  education.  By  the 
proper  employment  of  love  he  saw  the  condition  of  the 
children  alter  “  as  winter  is  changed  to  spring  by  the 
action  of  the  sun.”  He  was  in  the  midst  of  his  charge 
from  morning  till  night.  “  Every  assistance,”  he  says, 
“  everything  done  for  them  in  their  need,  all  the  teach¬ 
ing  that  they  received,  came  directly  from  me  ;  my  hand 
lay  on  their  hand,  my  eye  rested  on  their  eye.  My  tears 
flowed  with  theirs,  and  my  smile  accompanied  theirs. 


educational  theories. 


157 


Their  food  was  mine,  and  their  drink  was  mine.  I  had 
nothing,  no  housekeeping,  no  friends,  no  servants  ,  I  had 
them  alone.  I  slept  in  their  midst  ;  I  was  the  last  to  go 
to  bed  at  evening,  and  the  first  to  rise  in  the  morning.  I 
prayed  with  them,  and  taught  them  in  bed  before  they 
went  to  sleep.”  Having  thus  gained  an  influence  over 
them,  he  tried  to  develop  the  germ  of  their  better  feel¬ 
ings.  He  found  however  that  he  could  not  rely  on 
words  alone,  but  was  obliged  to  use  corporal  punishment. 

“  My  aim  was,”  he  says,  “  to  carry  the  simplifying  of 
all  means  of  teaching  so  far  that  every  common  man  can 
easily  bring  himself  to  teach  his  children,  and  to  make 
the  school  gradually  superfluous  for  the  first  elements. 

I  wished  to  bring  to  perfection  the  smallest  thing  that  the 
children  learned,  to  go  back  in  nothing,  so  that  they 
should  never  forget  one  word  that  they  had  learned,  or 
write  badly  one  letter  that  they  had  written  well.”  In 
this  school  Pestalozzi  himself  acquired  that  intimate 
knowledge  of  children’s  nature  which  no  man  ever  pos¬ 
sessed  to  a  larger  extent. 

This  work  was  suddenly  interrupted.  In  1799  the 
French  came  back  again  and  changed  the  buildings  of 
the  convent  at  Stanz  into  a  military  hospital.  Pestalozzi 
went  away  and  refreshed  himself  on  the  hills  of  Gurnigel 
after  the  wearisome  toil  with  which  he  had  tended  his 
beggar  children  during  nine  months.  He  still  longed  for 
the  work  of  a  teacher.  He  took  a  post  in  the  school  at 
Burgdorf  near  Berne,  and  applied  to  the  teaching  of  the 
lower  classes  the  principles  he  had  learned  at  fetanz.  He 
stayed  here  rather  less  than  a  year,  and  then,  with  the 
help  of  three  friends,  set  up  an  establishment  in  the  old 
castle  of  Burgdorf,  to  which  a  number  of  poor  Appenzell 


158 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


boys  came  as  pupils,  among  them  two  who  were  after¬ 
ward  celebrated,  Ramsauer  and  Egger.  There  were  no 
books,  no  appliances  of  education  ;  the  old  tapestry  of 
the  castle  was  made  use  of  for  object  lessons.  Here  on 
January  1,  1801,  Pestalozzi  began  a  new  book,  “  Wie 
Gertrud  ihre  Kinder  lehrt”  (u  How  Gertrude  teaches  her 
children”).  In  this  book  he  tries  to  solve  the  following 
problem  :  “  TV  hat  would  you  do  if  you  wished  to  give  a 
single  child  the  whole  cycle  of  those  acquirements  and 
practical  powers  which  it  has  need  of  so  that  it  may  by  a 
careful  use  of  its  opportunities  become  at  unity  with  it¬ 
self  ?”  or,  in  other  words,  What  knowledge  and  practical 
powers  are  necessary  for  children,  and  how  are  they  to  be 
imparted  ?  The  beginning  of  all  knowledge  is  observa¬ 
tion,  the  goal  of  it  is  clear  comprehension.  Pestalozzi 
says  that  the  greatest  service  he  has  rendered  to  educa¬ 
tion  is  the  recognition  of  observation,  of  the  power  of  the 
senses,  as  the  foundation  of  instruction. 

Let  us  read  a  description  of  the  school  at  Burgdorf 
given  by  Ramsauer,  one  of  Pestalozzi’ s  most  distinguished 
pupils:  “  All  instruction  was  based  on  speech,  number, 
and  form.  There  was  no  regular  plan  of  studies,  no  fixed 
hours,  but  the  same  thing  was  generally  taught  for  two 
or  three  hours  together.  We  were  about  sixty  boys  and 
girls,  from  the  ages  of  eight  to  fifteen,  and  were  taught 
from  eight  to  eleven  in  the  forenoon,  and  from  two  to 
four  in  the  afternoon.  All  teaching  was  confined  to 
drawing,  summing,  and  speaking.  We  did  not  either 
read  or  write,  as  we  had  no  books  for  either  purpose. 
We  learned  nothing  by  heart.  For  drawing  we  had  no 
copies,  only  red  chalk  and  boards,  and  while  Pestalozzi 
repeated  to  us  sentences  out  of  natural  history  we  drew 


educational  theories. 


159 


whatever  we  pleased.  Pestalozzi  never  saw  what  we  were 
drawing  ;  our  clothes  were  covered  with  red  chalk.  In 
arithmetic  the  method  was  good,  but  there  was  little  ex¬ 
amination.  Pestalozzi  was  too  impatient  with  us  to  make 
us  repeat  or  to  ask  us  questions,  and  he  was  in  such  a 
hurry  that  he  did  not  seem  to  care  about  individual  chil¬ 
dren.  His  object  lessons  were  good,  but  he  had  little 
method  in  them.  He  spoke  loud  and  indistinctly,  and  did 
not  wait  for  an  answer.  He  made  himself  quite  hoarse 
with  shouting.  The  lessons  began  at  eight  and  lasted  till 
eleven,  when,  hearing  the  other  children  in  the  streets, 
we  all  ran  away  without  taking  leave.  Although  Pesta¬ 
lozzi  objected  on  principle  to  corporal  punishment,  he 
gave  us  every  now  and  then  boxes  on  the  ear  right  and 
left.  The  children  teased  him  very  much.  I  pitied  him 
and  kept  quiet,  so  that  he  was  very  kind  to  me.  The 
first  time  I  came  into  Pestalozzi’ s  school  he  kissed  me 
and  greeted  me  with  heartiness,  then  he  showed  me  a 
place,  and  did  not  speak  to  me  any  more  the  whole  fore¬ 
noon,  but  went  on  talking  continually  without  stopping. 
As  I  understood  nothing  of  it  at  all  except  “  Ape,’’ 
“  Ape”  at  the  end  of  each  sentence,  and  as  Pestalozzi 
was  very  ugly  in  appearance,  with  no  necktie,  without  a 
coat,  in  long  shirt-sleeves  which  hung  down  over  his 
loosely  waving  arms  and  hands  as  he  ran  about  like  a 
madman  in  the  room,  I  felt  really  terrified,  and  I  could 
easily  have  believed  that  he  was  himself  an  ape.  And  I 
was  so  much  the  more  afraid  of  him  in  the  first  days  be¬ 
cause  he  had  given  me  a  kiss  on  my  arrival  with  his 
strong  prickly  beard,  the  first  that  to  my  knowledge  I 
had  ever  received  in  my  life.”  Nothing  could  exceed 
the  devotion  of  Pamsauer  to  his  master.  This  picture 


160 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


has  been  given  not  as  a  set-off  against  Pestalozzi’s  gifts  as 
a  teacher,  but  as  a  living  portrait  of  the  man,  and  as  an 
argument  that  great  effects  may  be  produced  by  love  and 
insight  even  when  accompanied  by  remarkable  eccentricity 
of  manner. 

In  1802  Pestalozzi  was  chosen  to  go  to  Paris  as  a  dep- 
uty  to  meet  the  First  Consul  Napoleon.  He  was  treated 
by  him  with  indifference,  and  did  not  succeed  in  interest¬ 
ing  him  in  his  schemes.  On  his  return  he  was  estab¬ 
lished  by  the  government  of  Berne  at  the  monastery  of 
Buclisee,  but  when  that  was  placed  under  the  direction  of 
Fellenberg  he  left  it  and  went  to  Yverdun,  where  he 
established  an  European  reputation.  This  little  town  be¬ 
came  a  place  of  pilgrimage  for  philanthropists  from  all 
parts  of  Europe.  Some  of  the  most  famous  school  re¬ 
formers  in  Germany  came  from  Switzerland.  In  1809 
Pestalozzi  had  under  him  fifteen  teachers  and  165  pupils 
from  all  parts  of  Europe  and  America,  and  thirty-two 
grown-up  teachers  to  learn  the  method.  Perhaps  the 
best  part  of  the  method  was  the  closeness  of  the  family 
life.  Teachers  and  scholars  slept  and  ate  together,  living 
entirely  in  common  under  circumstances  of  great  diffi¬ 
culty.  After  1810  the  prosperity  of  the  establishment 
began  to  decline,  chiefly  through  disagreement  among  the 
teachers.  It  was  found  that  the  school  did  not  fit  the 
pupils  for  the  life  which  they  were  expected  to  lead. 
Pestalozzi  hoped  to  transplant  the  school  once  more  to 
Neuhof,  but  it  was  found  impossible.  In  1825  he  was 
obliged  to  give  it  up,  and  withdrew  at  the  age  of  eighty 
to  his  original  home  of  Neuhof,  where  his  grandchildren 
lived.  Here  he  wrote  the  “  Schwanengesang,”  his  part¬ 
ing  song,  in  which  he  gave  to  the  world  a  sketch  of  his 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


161 


life,  and  unfolded  his  last  principles  of  education.  He 
died  on  February  17,  1827.  His  last  words  were,  “  I 
forgive  my  enemies  ;  may  they  find  peace  as  I  am  going 
to  everlasting  peace.  I  would  willingly  have  lived  a 
month  longer  for  my  last  works,  hut  I  thank  the  Provi¬ 
dence  which  calls  me  away  from  the  life  of  this  world. 
And  you,  my  children,  remain  quietly  by  yourselves,  and 
seek  your  happiness  in  the  peaceful  circle  of  home  life.” 

We  have  now  to  consider  what  were  Pestalozzi’s  prin¬ 
ciples  of  education.  They  were  founded  entirely  on  the 
following  of  nature.  The  end  of  education  he  considered 
to  be  the  harmonious  development  of  all  the  natural  pow¬ 
ers.  If  we  provide  for  this  harmonious  development  we 
shall  have  given  the  education  which  we  desire.  There 
is  a  certain  order  determined  for  us  which  our  develop¬ 
ment  should  follow,  there  are  certain  laws  which  it  should 
observe,  there  are  impulses  and  tendencies  implanted  in 
us  which  cannot  be  extinguished  or  subdued.  The  nat¬ 
ural  course  of  our  development  comes  from  these  im¬ 
pulses.  A  man  wishes  to  do  everything  which  he  feels 
himself  strong  enough  to  do,  and  in  virtue  of  this  in¬ 
dwelling  impulse  he  wills  to  do  this.  The  feeling  of  this 
inward  strength  is  the  expression  of  the  everlasting,  in¬ 
extinguishable.  unalterable  laws  which  lie  at  the  bottom 
of  a  man’s  nature.  These  laws  are  different  for  different 
individuals,  but  they  have  a  certain  harmony  and  con¬ 
tinuity  for  the  human  race.  How  that  alone  can  be  con¬ 
sidered  of  educative  power  for  a  man  which  grapples 
with  all  the  faculties  of  his  nature — with  heart,  mind,  and 
hand.  On  the  other  hand,  any  one-sided  influence  which 
deals  only  with  one  of  these  faculties  by  itself,  under¬ 
mines  and  destroys  the  equilibrium  of  our  forces,  and 


162 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


leads  to  an  education  which  is  contrary  to  nature.  If  we 
wish  to  raise  and  ennoble  ourselves  we  must  accept  as  the 
true  foundation  for  this  effort  the  unity  of  all  our  human 
powers.  What  Grod  has  joined  together  let  not  man  put 
asunder. 

Pestalozzi  tells  us  that  for  a  long  time  he  strove  to  find 
the  means  by  which  a  man  may  make  clear  and  intelligi¬ 
ble  to  himself  the  objects  which  come  before  his  eyes. 
He  came  to  these  conclusions.  He  will  direct  himself  to 
three  points  of  view  :  (1)  how  many  objects  move  before 
his  eyes,  and  of  how  many  kinds  ;  (2)  how  they  look, 
what  is  their  form  and  outline  ;  (3)  what  are  they  called, 
how  may  they  present  themselves  to  us,  by  a  sound  or 
word.  Now  a  man  who  has  passed  through  these  stages 
has  acquired  three  powers  :  (1)  the  power  to  represent 
dissimilar  objects  according  to  their  form  and  according 
to  their  contents  ;  (2)  the  power  to  separate  these  objects 
according  to  their  number,  and  to  represent  them  as  one 
or  many  ;  (3)  the  power  to  increase  the  vividness  of  the 
representation  of  an  object,  already  marked  by  form  and. 
number,  by  means  of  speech,  and  so  to  render  it  impos¬ 
sible  to  forget.  Therefore,  the  elementary  means  of  in¬ 
struction  are  three — number,  form,  and  speech.  Let  us 
proceed  a  little  further.  The  first  means  of  teaching  is 
by  sound.  This  may  be  divided  into  three  kinds  : 
(1)  tone-lore,  the  forming  of  the  organs  of  speech  to  pro¬ 
nounce  different  sounds  ;  (2)  word-lore,  the  means  of 
knowing  individual  objects  by  specially  assigned  names  ; 
and  (3)  speech-lore,  the  means  by  which  we  exactly  ex¬ 
press  ourselves  about  objects  known  to  us,  and  about 
everything  which  we  know  about  them.  Tone-lore  is  of 
two  kinds — speaking-tone  and  singing-tone.  Word-lore 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


163 


consists  of  lists  of  names  of  tlie  most  important  objects 
from  all  the  natural  kingdoms,  and  of  the  vocations  and 
relations  of  mankind  in  the  world.  These  lists  of  words 
must  be  given  to  the  child  to  learn  so  soon  as  he  has  fin 
ished  his  ABC.  In  speech-lore  the  great  object  to 
aim  at  is  exactness  of  expression,  so  as  to  be  able  care¬ 
fully  to  distinguish  different  objects  from  each  other. 
When  these  first  foundations  have  been  laid,  we  can  ap¬ 
ply  them  to  the  most  important  objects  of  human  inquiry 
— to  the  description  of  the  world,  to  history,  to  nature. 
The  second  means  of  instruction  is  form.  This  is  to  be 
taught  by  observation  ;  and  in  the  knowledge  of  form  we 
have  three  degrees,  obtained  by  measuring,  drawing,  and 
writing.  What  Pestalozzi  calls  measuring  is  really  geo¬ 
metrical  drawing,  which  holds  an  important  place  among 
modern  methods  of  instruction.  It  begins  with  the 
divisions  of  the  square  and  goes  on  to  those  of  the  circle. 
At  first  the  child  is  not  to  draw  himself,  but  merely  to 
follow,  and  to  understand  the  measurement  of  the  divi¬ 
sions.  Drawing  by  the  pupil  is  to  come  later,  when  the 
child  has  been  taught  to  understand  and  to  practise  the 
simplest  notions  of  geometry  ;  then  he  is  to  proceed  to 
writing.  Writing  is  to  be  taught  very  gradually,  first 
parts  of  letters,  then  single  letters,  then  complexes  of  let¬ 
ters  formed  into  woxds.  The  third  branch  of  elementary 
teaching  is  number.  It  has  this  advantage.  Sound  and 
form  may  sometimes  be  inaccurate  and  lead  to  misconcep¬ 
tion,  but  number  never  can  do  this.  The  results  it  leads 
to  are  always  certain  and  unassailable,  and  therefore  it  is 
one  of  the  most  important  means  of  education.  Reckon¬ 
ing,  in  its  simplest  form,  is  the  putting  together  or  the 
separation  of  unities :  one  and  one  makes  two,  one  from 


164 


educational  theories. 


two  leaves  one.  Teach  this  by  the  use  of  natural  objects, 
stones,  or  peas.  It  is  possible  also  to  bring  form  and 
number  into  harmony  by  the  use  of  reckoning-tables. 

Beyond  these  simple  parts  of  instruction — reading, 
writing,  and  arithmetic — Pestalozzi  does  not  go  ;  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that  his  influence  over  education  was 
enormous.  Poor,  and  without  learning,  he  tried  to 
reform  the  science  of  the  world.  He  was  enthusiastically 
supported  and  scornfully  abused.  His  place  among  edu¬ 
cationalists  is  now  no  longer  a  matter  of  doubt,  and  it  has 
grown  year  by  year  since  his  death.  His  methods  of . 
teaching  words,  forms,  and  numbers  were  accepted. 
Speaking  was  taught  by  pictures,  arithmetic  was  re¬ 
formed  ;  methods  of  geometry,  of  natural  history,  of 
geography,  of  singing,  and  drawing  were  composed  after 
Pestalozzi’ s  example.  Still  greater  was  the  influence 
which  he  exerted  over  the  general  theory  and  practice  of 
education.  It  is  due  to  him  that  we  have  accepted  as  a 
truth  that  the  foundation  of  education  lies  in  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  powers  of  each  individual.  The  method 
which  begins  by  educating  the  senses,  and  which  through 
them  works  on  the  intellect,  must  be  considered  as  de¬ 
rived  from  his  teaching.  The  kindergarten  of  Frobel  is 
only  the  particular  development  of  a  portion  of  his  general 
scheme.  His  example  also  gave  a  strong  impulse  to  the 
teaching  of  the  poor  and  destitute.  Schools  for  the  blind 
and  for  the  deaf  and  dumb  followed  his  reforms.  Care 
was  taken  for  poor  children  and  cripples  ;  evening  schools, 
Sunday  schools,  schools  for  trades  and  employments  were 
derived  from  this  initiative.  In  national  schools  methods 
of  discipline  were  improved,  and  the  care  of  individual 
children,  according  to  their  capacity,  became  the  rule  in- 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


165 


stead  of  the  exception.  A  new  library  of  children’s  liter¬ 
ature  appeared  in  Europe. 

We  live  so  completely  in  the  system  which  Pestalozzi 
helped  to  form  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  how 
great  a  man  he  was.  He  may  have  had  many  faults  as  an 
organizer  and  an  instructor,  but  he  gave  his  life  for  the 
lambs  of  the  flock.  He  was  the  first  teacher  who  incul¬ 
cated  unbounded  faith  in  the  power  of  human  love  and 
sympathy.  He  divested  himself  of  everything,  and  spent 
the  whole  of  a  long  life  in  the  service  of  the  poor  and 
lowly,  subduing  himself  to  those  whom  he  taught,  and 
entering  into  the  secrets  of  their  minds  and  hearts.  He 
loved  much,  and  many  shortcomings  may  be  forgiven 
him. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

KANT,  FICHTE,  AND  HERBART. 

Besides  the  different  schools  of  educationalists  of 
which  we  have  given  an  account — the  Humanists,  the 
Realists,  the  Naturalists — still  a  fourth  remains  to  be  de¬ 
scribed,  the  Scientific,  or  Metaphysical  school.  It  is 
entirely  a  growth  of  modern  times.  Some  theory  of  edu¬ 
cation  must  form  a  part  of  every  complete  philosophical 
system.  Whether  we  approach  the  analysis  of  the  pow¬ 
ers  of  the  mind  from  the  side  of  psychology  or  physiol¬ 
ogy,  we  are  led  to  form  a  theory  of  their  growth  and  of 
the  influences  which  affect  them,  based  either  on  the  one 
or  the  other  of  these  sciences.  Perhaps  the  conclusions 
of  our  own  time  on  this  subject  will  be  found  to  depend 


166 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


mainly  on  physiological  knowledge.  The  three  philoso¬ 
phers  whose  names  stand  at  the  head  of  this  chapter  ap¬ 
proached  the  science  of  education  through  the  study  of 
psychology.  With  Kant  and  Fichte  it  formed  but  a 
minor  and  subordinate  part  of  their  investigations,  with 
Herbart  it  was  the  main  object  of  inquiry.  To  him  the 
chief  use  of  philosophical  speculation  was  to  frame  a  right 
theory  of  education.  Kant  wTrote  no  special  treatise 
on  education.  He  lectured  at  the  University  of  Konigs- 
berg  on  pedagogics,  as  on  many  other  subjects  ;  and 
notes  of  these  lectures  were  published  by  one  of  his. 
pupils  just  before  his  <Jeath.  These  have  been  repub¬ 
lished  in  connected  form,  enlarged  by  selections  from 
other  parts  of  his  wrorks.  We  will  attempt  to  give  an  ac¬ 
count  of  his  views  as  methodical  as  possible,  considering 
the  fragmentary  manner  in  which  they  are  presented  to 
us. 

Man  is  the  only  being  that  needs  education.  By  edu¬ 
cation  we  mean  nurture,  discipline,  and  instruction. 
None  of  these  are  required  in  the  same  degree  by  animals. 
Only  by  education  can  man  become  a  man.  He  is  noth¬ 
ing  but  what  education  makes  of  him.  It  is  a  misfortune 
that  men  are  often  educated  by  people  worse  than  them¬ 
selves.  If  a  being  of  a  higher  order  could  educate  us  wTe 
should  reach  a  much  greater  perfection.  We  should 
learn  a  great  deal  if  experiments  were  made  in  education. 
It  is  strange  how  little  interest  men  take  in  these  matters, 
for  every  one  can  see  how  he  has  been  neglected  in  his 
youth.  If  we  believe  in  the  perfectibility  of  human  na¬ 
ture,  then  education  must  fill  us  with  bright  hopes.  Each 
generation  will  be  better  than  the  last,  until  mankind 
reaches  a  standard  which  it  could  not  have  anticipated  or 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


167 


imagined.  In  man  lie  the  germs  of  various  capacities. 
These  we  must  try  to  develop  in  due  harmony  and  pro¬ 
portion,  that  each  man  may  obtain  the  perfection  of 
which  he  is  capable.  Yet  we  must  grasp  the  truth  that 
the  complete  attainment  of  destined  perfection  is  not  for 
the  individual,  but  for  the  race.  Education  is  an  art 
which  must  be  brought  to  perfection  by  the  practice  of 
many  generations.  Each  generation  can  profit  by  the  ex¬ 
perience  of  its  predecessors.  Education  may  be  either 
mechanical  (or  empirical) — that  is,  without  plan,  merely 
following  circumstances,  or  judicious  (scientific).  Scien¬ 
tific  education  is  far  preferable  to  the  other.  One  most 
important  principle  of  education  is  that  children  should 
not  be  educated  for  their  present  condition,  but  for  the 
future  of  the  human  race,  which  may  possibly  be  better. 
They  must  be  educated  in  accordance  with  the  idea  of 
humanity  and  its  destination  as  a  whole.  Notwithstand¬ 
ing  the  great  importance  of  this  principle,  neither  princes 
nor  parents  are  anxious  to  bring  about  this  result. 
Parents  look  merely  to  present  advantages,  princes  to  the 
convenience  of  their  government.  Therefore  schools 
ought  not  to  be  left  to  them,  but  placed  under  the  guid¬ 
ance  of  the  most  enlightened  experts.  Schools  of  experi¬ 
ment  for  trying  new  methods  of  education  are  even  more 
important  than  normal  schools  for  the  training  of  teach¬ 
ers.  Education  is  above  everything  an  experimental 
science. 

Education  must  include  various  elements.  From  one 
point  of  view  it  will  comprise — 1,  discipline  ;  and  2,  cul¬ 
ture,  discipline  being  the  taming  of  the  wild  nature,  cul¬ 
ture  comprising  both  instruction  and  the  formation  of  the 
mind  ;  3,  civilization,  to  make  a  man  fit  for  the  society 


168 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


of  his  fellow  men  ;  and  4,  morality,  to  make  men  good. 
Again,  education  may  he  either  public  or  private.  The 
former  is  preferable.  Children  brought  up  at  home  will 
first  learn  and  then  propagate  the  faults  of  their  parents. 
The  great  problem  of  both  these  forms  of  education  is 
how  to  combine  compulsion  with  liberty.  Again,  educa¬ 
tion  may  be  either  physical  or  practical.  The  first  is  con¬ 
cerned  with  that  which  men  have  in  common  with  ani¬ 
mals  ;  practical  education  fits  a  man  for  life.  This  may 
be  divided  into  three  parts  :  1,  the  scholastic — mechanic, 
or  purely  didactic  ;  2,  the  pragmatic,  to  teach  prudence 
in  affairs  ;  3,  the  moral,  to  teach  virtue.  They  follow 
each  other  in  the  order  here  given.  With  regard  to  early 
physical  education  Kant  agrees  in  the  main  with  the  ad¬ 
vice  of  Locke  and  Rousseau.  He  objects  to  mechanical 
aids  for  children,  leading-strings,  and  the  like.  He  says 
that  we  ruin  our  natural  capacities  by  the  use  of  instru¬ 
ments  :  we  use  a  rule  when  we  might  measure  by  the 
eye,  a  watch  when  we  might  tell  the  time  by  the  sun,  a 
compass  when  the  stars  ought  to  give  us  direction.  We 
ought  to  cultivate  a  child’s  natural  faculties  as  soon  as 
possible.  Kant  is  here  in  close  agreement  with  Pestalozzi 
and  Frobel.  To  pass  to  the  cultivation  of  the  spirit — this 
is  of  two  kinds  :  1,  physical  or  practical  ;  2,  pragmatic 
or  moral.  The  physical  education  of  the  spirit  is  either 
free  or  scholastic.  The  free  cultivation  is  provided  for 
by  games,  the  scholastic  by  work.  There  are  many  who 
think  that  everything  can  be  taught  in  playing.  Men  are 
by  nature  lazy,  and  they  must  be  taught  to  work.  Work 
is  not  agreeable  in  itself,  but  it  conduces  to  an  end  out¬ 
side  itself  ;  games,  on  the  other  hand,  are  agreeable,  and 
are  an  end  in  themselves.  Man  is  the  only  animal  that  is 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


169 


obliged  to  labor  ;  be  requires  all  kinds  of  things,  which 
can  only  be  provided  by  toil  and  hard  work.  The  neces¬ 
sity  of  work  is  the  great  blessing  of  our  lot.  If  Adam 
and  Eve  had  remained  in  Paradise  they  would  soon  have 
got  tired  of  it.  A  child  must  not  be  taught  to  look  on 
everything  as  play.  Even  if  he  does  not  see  the  use  of 
the  work,  he  will  get  a  great  deal  of  good  by  it.  In  the 
cultivation  of  the  spirit  we  must  develop  the  higher  quali¬ 
ties  first,  the  lower  only  in  reference  to  them  ;  for  in¬ 
stance,  the  will  and  the  imagination  as  subordinate  to  the 
understanding.  Memory  has  little  value  by  itself.  It  is 
like  a  pack-horse,  fit  to  carry  materials  while  others  build. 
Understanding  is  the  knowledge  of  the  universal,  judg¬ 
ment  is  the  application  of  the  general  to  the  particular. 
Some  things  can  only  be  learned  by  memory.  History  is 
not  one  of  them.  The  main  use  of  it  is  to  practise  the 
understanding  in  pronouncing  judgments. 

In  teaching  children  we  should  try  gradually  to  join  to¬ 
gether  “  know  and  can,”  knowledge  with  practical  power. 
Of  all  sciences  mathematics  is  the  best  for  this  purpose. 
We  should  also  join  together  knowledge  and  speech. 
This  is  done  by  teaching  eloquence  and  fluency.  But  the 
child  must  learn  to  distinguish  knowing  from  thinking  or 
believing.  By  this  means  we  shall  form  a  right  under¬ 
standing  and  a  right  if  not  a  refined  or  delicate  taste. 

Moral  training  depends  not  on  discipline  but  on  max¬ 
ims.  All  is  spoiled  if  we  base  it  on  threats  or  punish¬ 
ments.  Children  must  accustom  themselves  to  act  ac¬ 
cording  to  certain  rules.  If  a  child  tells  a  lie,  do  not  pun¬ 
ish  him,  treat  him  with  contempt  ;  tell  him  that  he  will 
not  be  believed  in  future.  If  you  punish  a  child  when  he 
does  ill,  and  reward  him  when  he  does  well,  he  acts  not 
12 


170 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


for  the  good  or  the  evil,  hut  for  the  reward.  Morality  is 
something  so  holy  and  so  elevated  that  we  must  not  throw 
it  away  and  place  it  in  the  same  rank  with  discipline. 
The  first  duty  of  moral  education  is  to  form  the  charac¬ 
ter,  and  character  consists  in  a  readiness  to  act  according 
to  maxims.  Maxims  are  subjective  laws  springing  from 
the  understanding  of  men.  If  you  wish  your  children  to 
have  character,  they  must  be  accustomed  to  act  by  rule. 
Men  who  do  not  act  by  rules  cannot  be  depended  upon. 

The  most  important  thing  for  a  child’s  character,  espe¬ 
cially  a  school  child’s,  is  obedience.  This  is  twofold  : 
referring  either  to  the  absolute,  or  to  the  sensible  and 
well-understood  will  of  a  teacher.  Absolute  obedience 
comes  from  compulsion,  relative  from  free-will  and  confi¬ 
dence.  This  last  is  much  the  best.  Still  children  must 
in  some  general  matters  show  an  absolute  obedience. 
The  teacher  must  exhibit  no  preference.  Children  should 
be  encouraged  to  act  from  inclination,  but  they  must 
sometimes  be  made  to  act  from  duty.  Men  have  to  per¬ 
form  duties  in  after  life,  and  they  must  be  induced  to  be¬ 
gin  when  young.  Punishments  are  of  two  kinds — physi¬ 
cal  and  moral.  Moral  punishment  is  inflicted  where  we 
act  on  a  child’s  natural  desire  for  love  and  affection,  when 
we  refuse  to  speak  to  him  and  treat  him  with  contempt. 
Physical  punishment  consists  either  in  denying  him  what 
he  wants,  or  giving  him  what  he  does  not  want.  Pun¬ 
ishment  should  always  be  accompanied  with  an  exhibition 
of  moral  feeling.  It  should  not  be  simply  mechanical, 
or  it  will  fail  in  its  effect.  Truthfulness  is  the  chief  point 
in  the  foundation  of  a  good  character,  but  it  cannot  be 
secured  by  punishment.  Y ou  must  make  a  child  ashamed 
of  telling  a  lie.  Contempt  is  the  only  fitting  punishment 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


171 


for  this  offence.  Sociability  is  important  for  children. 
They  should  be  taught  to  be  friendly  with  each  other, 
and  not  to  be  too  much  alone  by  themselves.  Teachers 
often  neglect  this.  Children  should  be  prepared  for  the 
sweetest  enjoyments  of  life.  They  should  be  open  and 
as  cheerful  in  their  look  as  the  sun.  If  they  are  happy 
they  stand  the  best  chance  of  being  good.  Many  think 
that  the  years  of  childhood  are  the  best  and  most  pleas¬ 
ant  of  a  man’s  life.  This  is  not  so.  They  are  years  of 
trouble,  because  children  are  under  discipline  ;  they  often 
have  no  friends  and  no  freedom. 

Kant  has  some  excellent  remarks  upon  the  methods  of 
teaching.  Rules  and  examples  should  go  together,  the 
rules  slightly  preceding.  The  powers  of  the  mind  are 
best  cultivated  when  we  do  things  for  ourselves  ;  for 
instance,  when  we  apply  rules  of  grammar  which  we  have 
learned,  as  when  we  make  a  map  for  ourselves.  Self- 
taught  men  learn  best,  but  few  are  capable  of  this.  To 
educate  the  reason  we  must  proceed  after  the  manner  of 
Socrates.  He  called  himself  the  midwife  of  the  mind. 
We  must  help  the  reason  to  come  to  birth.  For  this  pur¬ 
pose  we  must  use  the  method  of  question  and  answer.  It 
is  slow,  but  efficacious.  Kant,  in  his  treatise  on  logic, 
classifies  the  methods  of  teaching  under  three  heads  :  1, 
acroamatic,  where  the  professor  simply  teaches  ;  2,  erotetic, 
where  both  pupil  and  teacher  ask  questions  ;  3,  ca¬ 
techetical,  where  the  teacher  alone  asks  questions.  It  is 
the  second  of  these  which  Kant  prefers. 

The  last  quality  which  a  man  acquires  is  knowledge  of 
the  world,  and  it  only  stands  second  in  value  to  morality. 
It  consists  in  concealing  yourself  and  seeing  through 
others.  For  the  first  we  must  use  propriety  of  behavior, 


172 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


and  that  is  a  useful  possession  ;  also  dissimulation  is  use¬ 
ful,  that  is,  the  concealment  of  our  faults,  hut  it  is  only 
allowable  in  certain  cases.  Knowledge  of  the  world  con¬ 
cerns  the  temperament,  but  morality  is  part  of  the  char¬ 
acter.  Sustine  et  abstine :  bear  and  forbear.  The  first 
step  is  to  subdue  the  passions.  We  must  encourage  sym¬ 
pathy  in  children,  but  not  over-sensibility,  as  it  makes 
them  weak  in  character.  A  good  motto  for  the  conduct 
of  the  character  is  festina  lente :  without  rest,  without 
haste.  We  must  also  impress  upon  children  the  duties 
they  have  to  fulfil  as  far  as  possible  by  example.  These 
duties  are  of  two  kinds — those  of  a  man  toward  himself 
and  those  toward  others.  The  duties  of  a  child  toward 
himself  are  cleanliness,  purity,  sobriety,  and  the  most  im¬ 
portant  safeguard  of  all  is  the  possession  of  a  certain  self- 
respect  which  he  values  beyond  everything  else.  A 
man’s  duty  toward  himself  is  often  neglected  in  compari¬ 
son  with  his  duty  toward  others,  but  in  critical  moments 
it  is  the  only  thing  that  will  keep  him  straight.  If  it  is 
asked  whether  man  is  by  nature  morally  good  or  bad  we 
must  reply,  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  ;  for  by  nature 
man  is  not  a  moral  being  at  all.  He  only  becomes  such 
when  his  reason  is  raised  to  the  comprehension  of  notions 
of  duty  and  law.  On  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  said  that 
he  has  within  himself  temptations  to  every  kind  of  evil, 
impulses,  and  instincts  which  entice  him,  although  his  rea¬ 
son  urges  him  in  the  opposite  direction.  He  can  only 
become  morally  good  through  virtue — that  is,  through 
self-command.  The  laws  of  social  duty  should  be  care¬ 
fully  taught  to  children  ;  it  is  more  important  that  they 
should  act  from  an  idea  of  duty  than  from  a  tender  or 
compassionate  heart. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


173 


It  is  a  great  question  how  soon  we  ought  to  teach  chil¬ 
dren  religion.  It  would  be  an  advantage  if  we  could  lead 
children  up  gradually  from  the  contemplation  of  nature  to 
the  idea  of  God.  But  this  is  impossible.  If  they  are 
not  taught  about  God  from  you  they  will  hear  of  Him 
from  others.  We  must  content  ourselves  with  securing 
that  religion  is  not  mere  imitation.  The  idea  of  God 
is  best  taught  by  the  analogy  of  a  father  ;  we  shall  then 
be  able  to  regard  mankind  as  a  family.  What  is  relig¬ 
ion  ?  It  may  be  defined  as  the  law  within  us  in  so  far  as 
it  influences  us  through  a  lawgiver  and  a  judge  ;  it  is 
morality  applied  to  the  knowledge  of  God.  Religion  is 
nothing  without  morality.  Teach  a  child  at  first  nothing 
of  theology.  Religion  based  upon  theology  can  never 
contain  any  moral  element.  Morality  must  come  first, 
theology  will  follow.  A  child  must  fear  God — 1,  as  the 
Lord  of  life  and  of  the  whole  world  ;  2,  as  the  Provider 
for  men  ;  3,  as  the  Judge  of  mankind.  Kant  concludes 
with  a  solemn  warning  as  to  the  great  care  which  must 
be  taken  of  a  youth  just  at  the  time  when  he  is  becoming 
a  man.  This  should  be  read  and  meditated  on  by  all  who 
have  the  care  of  instruction  in  their  hands. 

The  educational  theories  of  Fichte  could  not  be  fully 
explained  without  a  more  complete  exposition  of  his  gen¬ 
eral  system  of  philosophy  than  our  present  purpose  admits 
of.  Indeed,  he  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  formulated  a 
definite  theory  of  teaching,  and  the  attempts  made  by  his 
pupils  to  carry  his  precepts  into  effect  led  them  far  astray 
from  the  dogmas  of  their  master.  In  moral  teaching  he 
mainly  adopted  the  views  of  Kant  ;  in  practical  methods 
he  wras  an  ardent  disciple  of  Pestalozzi,  whom  he  regarded 
as  a  second  Luther.  The  point  on  which  he  laid  most 


174 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


stress  was  the  development  of  the  individual  character, 
the  life.  Men,  he  said,  were  naturally  good,  and  the 
object  of  education  was  to  develop  this  germ  of  goodness 
and  to  form  an  independent  and  self-sufficient  individual¬ 
ity.  But  the  great  service  which  he  rendered  to  educa¬ 
tion  was  the  passionate  advocacy  of  a  national  system  of 
instruction  in  his  speeches  to  the  German  people.  He 
saw  the  German  nationality  torn  asunder  by  divisions, 
ground  under  the  heel  of  a  French  invader,  and  he  per¬ 
ceived  that  the  true  way  to  its  regeneration  lay  in  a 
really  national  system  of  education.  This  system  was  to 
be  common  to  every  one  alike— rich  and  poor,  male  and 
female.  Its  conduct  was  to  he  the  business  of  the  State  ; 
it  was  not  only  to  be  intellectual,  but  moral,  not  only  re¬ 
ligious,  but  aesthetic.  Fichte  dealt  too  much  in  generali¬ 
ties  to  be  the  author  of  a  wmrking  plan,  and  his  views 
have  never  been  exactly  carried  out.  But  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  force  with  which  he  asserted  that  all 
classes  in  the  community  should  be  educated,  and  that  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  State  to  see  this  done,  had  a  great 
effect  in  framing  that  magnificent  system  of  instruction 
which  Germany  offers  as  an  example  to  the  world. 

Ilerbart,  on  the  other  hand,  may  be  regarded  as  the 
founder  of  modern  scientific  pedagogics.  In  the  list  of 
German  philosophers  he  stands  as  the  founder  of  modern 
German  psychology.  To  estimate  the  value  of  his  philo¬ 
sophical  speculations  must  be  left  to  others,  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  he  was  the  first  to  see  that  a  national  system 
of  education  must  be  founded  on  a  true  psychology,  and, 
indeed,  that  it  is  impossible  to  form  a  scheme  of  educa¬ 
tion  complete  in  all  its  branches  until  we  have  arrived  at 
a  certain  knowledge  of  the  true  bases  of  ethics  and  psy- 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


175 


chology.  Education,  regarded  from  this  point  of  view, 
is  the  sum  of  all  the  other  sciences.  The  fundamental 
principle  of  education  is  the  teachableness  of  the  pupil. 
Not  that  all  children  can  be  taught  everything.  Their  ca¬ 
pacity  is  bounded  by  the  limits  of  their  individuality  and 
by  the  circumstances  of  place  and  time.  Although  the 
educator  cannot  effect  all  that  he  wishes,  he  must  set  his 
level  of  aspiration  as  high  as  possible.  The  end  of  edu¬ 
cation  is  virtue.  This  is  the  realization  in  each  person  of 
the  idea  of  inward  freedom  ;  and  this  inward  freedom  is 
a  relation  between  two  things — insight  and  will.  The 
duty  of  the  teacher  is  to  develop  both  of  these  factors,  in 
order  that  a  permanent  relation  may  be  established  be¬ 
tween  them.  Psychology  shows  us  in  what  order  the 
faculties  of  the  child  are  found  to  develop.  First  we 
have  the  power  of  sensation,  then  the  memory,  which  re¬ 
tains  traces  of  these  and  can  reproduce  these  traces.  The 
constant  questions  of  the  young  child  are  indications  of 
the  nascent  power  of  judgment  ;  an  attempt  to  bring  his 
ideas  under  higher  generalizations,  and  to  give  them 
names.  Then  his  personal  likes  or  dislikes  maniiesting 
the  growing  will,  which  is  dangerous  if  not  controlled 
from  the  first.  The  sesthetic  judgment  which,  according 
to  Herbart’s  philosophy,  is  the  source  not  only  of  the 
higher  pleasures  of  art,  but  of  morality,  is  developed  last. 
Soon  the  child  asks  fewer  questions  and  devotes  himself 
to  action,  seeking  more  and  more  the  companionship  of 
children  of  his  own  age.  His  individuality  becomes  more 
pronounced.  In  attempting  to  understand  the  capacity 
of  children  we  arc  met  with  this  difficulty,  that  they  are 
so  deeply  affected  by  the  environment  in  which  they  find 
themselves.  They  have  one  character  for  their  family, 


176 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


another  for  the  school,  another  for  their  companions  at 
play.  Each  of  these  may  become,  under  certain  circum¬ 
stances,  the  determining  character  of  their  lives.  Her- 
bart  divides  education  into  three  branches — government, 
instruction,  and  discipline. 

1.  Government. — A  child  comes  into  the  world  with¬ 
out  will,  incapable  of  moral  action.  He  is  led  by  a  nat¬ 
ural  impulse  to  actions  which  may  he  harmful  both  to 
others  and  to  himself.  These  actions  it  is  necessary  to 
restrain,  but  in  doing  this  we  must  avoid  conflict.  We 
must  only  keep  this  end  in  view  to  secure  order  and  to 
foster  the  tender  soul.  The  chief  means  for  effecting 
this  object  is  to  keep  the  child  employed.  Such  is  the 
end  of  government  ;  what  are  the  means  to  be  employed  ? 

First,  threats  ;  but  these  may  be  of  no  effect  upon  a 
strong  nature,  and  they  may  dangerously  cripple  a  weak 
one.  Therefore,  they  must  be  used  with  great  caution. 
Second,  surveillance  ;  but  this  is  a  burden  to  both  par¬ 
ties  ;  it  is  also  dangerous  to  the  child,  because  it  prevents 
him  from  learning  a  thousand  things  by  himself,  and  be¬ 
cause  the  closer  it  is  the  more  it  will  weaken  or  disturb 
his  character.  Watchfulness  is  only  suited  for  the  very 
earliest  years,  or  for  seasons  of  especial  danger.  There 
remain,  then,  two  engines  of  government — authority  and 
love.  Authority  must  be  that  of  a  superior  character, 
love  must  be  grounded  on  sympathy,  and  must  not  degen¬ 
erate  into  weakness. 

2.  Instruction. — The  value  of  a  man  lies  not  in  knowl¬ 
edge,  but  in  will.  But  the  will  has  its  roots  in  the  intel¬ 
lect,  and  therefore  the  sum  of  a  man’s  intellectual  acqui¬ 
sitions  are  of  importance  to  his  character.  Instruction, 
therefore,  comes  before  discipline,  and  they  have  this  in 


EDUCATIONAL  TIIEOKIES. 


177 


common,  that  they  are  concerned  with  the  future, 
whereas  government  has  to  do  only  with  the  present. 
The  end  of  instruction  is  the  production  of  virtue,  hut  a 
nearer  object  is  the  production  of  many-sided  interests. 
An  entirely  uneducated  person  cannot  be  virtuous  ;  the 
brain  must  be  first  aroused.  Instruction  must  be  carried 
out  first  with  energy,  in  order  that  the  interest  may  be 
awakened  ;  then  with  breadth,  in  order  that  the  interest 
may  be  many-sided  ;.  and  lastly,  with  unity  of  purpose, 
in  order  that  the  intelligence  may  not  be  distracted.  The 
unity  of  the  individual  must  not  suffer  by  the  many- 
sidedness  of  the  training  he  receives.  The  mind  is  capa¬ 
ble  of  studying  intensely  one  thing  after  another.  But 
we  must  take  care  that  these  different  acquirements  do 
not  merely  rest  side  by  side,  but  that  they  meet  in  the 
unity  of  the  individual  consciousness.  Consciousness 
is  the  bond  which  holds  these  attainments  firmly  together  ; 
it  is  the  middle  point  to  which  they  all  converge.  A 
piece  of  knowledge  thoroughly  acquired  is  clear  and  in¬ 
telligible  ;  it  becomes  dim  when  compared  with  other 
knowledge  which  does  not  belong  to  it.  Therefore  for  the 
sake  of  clearness  we  must  keep  our  lines  of  knowledge 
separate.  Again,  complete  seif-consciousness  is  clear 
and  undisturbed.  A  clear  self-consciousness,  combined 
with  many-sided  acquirements,  is  the  result  of  system, 
and  is  attained  by  method. 

Herbart  explains  at  length,  and  in  the  •  phraseology  of 
his  school,  that  all  teaching  to  be  effective  must  set  the 
mind  of  the  learner  in  independent  motion.  Perception 
of  the  matter  taught  is  not  enough  ;  there  must  be  ap¬ 
perception,  that  is,  the  learner  must  recognize  it  and 
assimilate  it  to  his  previous  experience.  He  must  add 


178 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


something  of  his  own  to  the  ideas  presented  to  him  by 
his  instructor.  Interests  may  be  divided  into  six  classes. 
1.  The  empiric  interest,  by  which  we  perceive  the  mani¬ 
fold  phenomena  which  the  world  presents  to  us  ;  2,  the 
speculative  interest,  by  which  we  become  devoted  to  the 
pursuits  of  some  particular  science  ;  3,  the  aesthetic 
interest,  by  which  we  attach  ourselves  to  painting,  sculp¬ 
ture,  poetry,  either  lyric  or  dramatic,  or  music  ;  4,  the 
sympathetic  interest,  by  which  we  care  for  our  family, 
friends,  or  countrymen,  but  not  for  the  human  race  in 
general  ;  5,  the  social  interest,  by  which  we  attach  our¬ 
selves  to  political  parties  and  cliques  ;  6,  the  religious 
interest,  which  induces  us  to  become  attached  to  particu¬ 
lar  dogmas  or  sects.  Each  of  these  interests,  although 
good  in  itself,  may  become  narrow  and  one-sided.  This 
it  is  the  duty  of  education  to  be  on  its  guard  against,  and 
to  prevent.  Instruction  may  be  either  analytic  or  syn¬ 
thetic.  We  must  make  use  of  both  these  means.  The 
pupil  cannot  reach  by  analysis  the  same  wealth  of  attain¬ 
ment  as  he  can  by  information  imparted  by  the  teacher. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  mere  imparting  of  information 
will  not  unite  itself  with  the  individual  consciousness  ex¬ 
cept  in  the  most  gifted  natures,  unless  it  be  combined 
with  the  practice  of  analysis. 

3.  Discipline  is  concerned  with  the  future  of  the  pupil. 
It  rests  on  hope,  and  shows  itself  in  patience.  It  modi¬ 
fies  government,  which  might  perhaps  effect  its  purpose 
sooner  with  greater  severity  ;  it  modifies  instruction  in 
cases  where  this  makes  too  great  demands  on  the  powers 
of  the  individual.  It  requires  for  its  exercise  tact  and 
natural  cheerfulness.  Instruction  and  discipline  taken  to¬ 
gether  make  up  education.  The  object  of  discipline  is  to 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


179 


strengthen  the  character  for  the  purposes  of  morality. 
Differences  of  character  depend  upon  differences  of  will. 
When  a  man  looks  into  his  mind  he  finds  something 
already  there,  certain  tendencies,  certain  signs  of  strength 
and  weakness,  resulting  from  his  natural  disposition. 
This  is  the  objective  part  of  the  character.  But  by  the 
contemplation  of  his  qualities  arises  a  new  will,  which  by 
distinction  from  the  other  should  be  called  the  subjective 
part  of  his  character.  Objective  characters  differ  very 
greatly,  and  need  for  their  improvement  both  stimulus 
and  repression.  These  it  is  difficult  to  apply, 
fore  the  objective  part  of  the  character  only  attains  with 
trouble  a  condition  of  harmony  with  itself.  Such  a  har¬ 
mony  is  produced  by  the  operation  of  what  Ilerbart  calls 
will-memory.  The  subjective  part  of  the  will  is  gradually 
formed  by  the. adoption  of  certain  modes  of  action  under 
similar  circumstances  ;  and  as  this  part  of  the  will  de¬ 
velops,  a  man  acquires  for  himself  certain  maxims  and 
principles,  which  give  rise  to  motives,  do  make  these  mo¬ 
tives  effectual  often  requires  a  struggle,  and  the  strength  or 
weakness  of  a  character  is  shown  by  the  more  or  less  com¬ 
plete  harmony  between  the  objective  and  the  subjective 
.  will.  Morality  resides  in  both.  However  well  disposed 
a  child  may  be,  and  however  much  his  objective  will  may 
be  full  of  good  tendencies,  we  shall  not  secure  the  opera¬ 
tion  of  these,  and  the  exclusion  of  the  bad  tendencies 
which  are  to  be  found  in  every  one,  unless  we  support 
them  by  good  principles,  which  belong  to  the  subjective 
side  of  the  will.  These  principles  are  produced  by  the 
aesthetic  judgments,  by  which  the  child  is  led  to  distin¬ 
guish  between  good  and  evil.  Unless  these  judgments  aie 
clear,  strong,  and  complete,  the  principles  have  not  iiim 


180 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


foundation  in  the  pupil’s  mind,  and  are  little  better  than 
words  learned  by  rote.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  aesthet¬ 
ic  judgments  of  the  will  are  interwoven  with  the  whole 
of  the  interest  which  springs  from  experience,  intercourse 
with  teachers,  and  instruction,  then  a  natural  enthusiasm 
for  virtue  is  produced,  and  this  is  strengthened  by  the 
logical  cultivation  of  maxims  and  their  systematic  use  in 
the  course  of  life. 

Discipline  has  three  functions — to  restrain,  to  deter¬ 
mine,  and  to  regulate.  Restraining  discipline  springs 
from  that  memory  of  the  will  which  is  the  opposite  of 
the  levity  generally  attributed  to  youth.  The  first  mani¬ 
festation  of  restraining  discipline  is  government,  and  the 
obedience  which  it  produces.  The  object  of  determin¬ 
ing  discipline  is  to  secure  that  the  pupil  shall  choose,  and 
not  the  teacher  in  Ins  name.  Regulating  discipline  be¬ 
gins  when  the  subjective  character  begins  to  show  itself. 

It  appeals  to  the  child’s  reason,  and  tries  to  produce 
consistency  of  action.  By  these  means  we  produce  in 
the  mind  first  aesthetic  judgments  of  the  will  ;  that  is, 
the  habit  of  preferring  good  to  evil  as  a  matter  of  taste 
and  choice,  and  lastly,  reasoned  morality,  which  is  the 
final  stage.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  truth  or  falsehood  . 
of  Herbart’s  principles  of  education  must  stand  or  fall 
with  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  his  psychology.  Whatever 
may  be  his  ultimate  influence,  he  deserves  the  credit  of 
showing  that  a  right  philosophy  of  education  can  only  be 
founded  upon  a  right  system  of  psychology. 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


181 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  ENGLISH  PUBLIC  SCHOOL. 

Ho  survey  of  educational  theories,  however  brief, 
would  be  complete  without  some  consideration  of  that 
form  of  education  which  is  most  essentially  English,  and 
which  is  regarded  both  by  ourselves  and  by  foreigners  as 
a  representation  on  a  small  scale  of  our  national  life. 
It  would  be  impossible  within  these  narrow  limits  to  do 
anything  more  than  to  touch  on  certain  aspects  of  the 
subject.  It  will  be  enough  to  show  how  our  public 
schools  came  into  being,  what  they  were  like  at  the  time 
of  the  revival  of  learning,  the  principal  changes  which 
they  have  undergone  since,  and,  in  conclusion,  to  consider 
whether  they  can  be  accepted  as  the  best  type  on  which 
a  comprehensive  scheme  of  national  secondary  education 
should  be  moulded.  For  this  purpose  no  schools  need 
be  mentioned  except  the  three  colleges  of  Winchester, 
Eton,  and  Westminster.  They  have  this  in  common, 
that  they  have  all  arisen  under  the  shadow  of  royal  pal¬ 
aces.  William  of  Wykeham,  in  founding  his  magnifi¬ 
cent  college,  was  only  restoring  to  the  royal  city  of  Win¬ 
chester  a  place  of  education  which  had  flourished  there 
from  time  immemorial.  The  school  was  opened  in  1393, 
seven  years  after  the  opening  of  New  College  at  Oxford. 
The  two  institutions  were  intended  to  go  hand  in  hand 
together  ;  each  was  to  be  a  check  and  an  assistance  to  the 
other.  New  College  students  were  prepared  at  Winches¬ 
ter,  and  it  was  the  duty  of  the  university  foundation  to 
notice  and  to  demand  the  correction  of  any  shortcomings 


182 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


which  might  bo  observed  in  the  conduct  of  the  school. 
It  is  a  strong  testimony  to  the  unity  of  English  history 
and  to  the  permanence  of  our  institutions  that  these  two 
foundations  now,  at  the  end  of  five  hundred  years,  hold 
a  rank  second  to  none  in  their  departments  of  instruction. 

Eton  College,  with  its  sister,  King’s  College  at  Cam¬ 
bridge,  was  founded  about  forty  years  later,  on  the 
avowed  model  of  Winchester.  As  the  sainted  Henry 
looked  from  the  terrace  of  Windsor  upon  the  low-lying 
meadows  of  the  Thames  valley,  and  upon  the  pilgrimage 
church  of  Our  Lady  of  Eton,  he  determined  to  establish 
there  an  institution  which  should  give  to  his  name  a  lus¬ 
tre  which  it  was  never  likely  to  receive  from  statesmanship 
or  war.  The  scheme  of  the  two  colleges  occupied  the 
thoughts  of  the  monarch  during  his  whole  life.  He  was 
only  nineteen  when  he  laid  the  first  stone  of  his  design, 
and  his  full  plan  for  its  completion  occupies  his  last  will 
and  testament.  Eton  was  from  the  first  a  school  for  the 
governing  classes,  the  gentry  of  England.  It  is  said 
that  Henry  VII.  was  educated  there.  The  Paston  Letters 
show  us  the  son  of  a  Norfolk  squire  going  thus  far  afield 
for  his  education.  Not  until  some  time  later  did  Eton 
become,  par  excellence ,  the  court  school  of  England,  but 
it  was  not,  like  so  many  schools  which  now  stand  in  the 
first  rank,  developed  from  a  grammar  school,  and 
changed,  from  a  position  of  mere  local  usefulness,  to  one 
of  imperial  importance. 

Westminster,  founded  in  1541,  is  a  specimen  of  the 
abbey  school,  changed  to  suit  Protestant  times.  The 
scholars  are  domiciled  in  the  old  dormitory  of  the  Bene¬ 
dictines,  the  dean  and  chapter  exercise  superintendence 
over  its  conduct.  But  by  its  position  at  Westminster, 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


183 


close  to  the  Houses  of  Parliament  and  Whitehall,  the 
school  acquired  an  importance  for  which  it  was  not  origi¬ 
nally  designed.  Queen  Elizabeth  probably  cared  more  for 
Eton  than  for  Westminster,  although  the  latter  school 
owes  her  so  much.  Under  the  regime  of  Busby,  and 
even  before  it,  Westminster  clung  closely  to  the  fortunes 
of  the  Stuarts.  It  was  not  till  the  reign  of  Anne,  or  per¬ 
haps  till  that  of  George  I.,  that  Eton  began  to  gain  upon 
its  rival  in  fashion  and  popularity.  The  residence  of 
George  III.  at  Windsor,  and  his  great  attachment  to 
Eton,  placed  that  school  indisputably  in  the  first  place, 
and  it  would  now  be  to  many  people  difficult  to  imagine 
that  there  was  ever  a  time  when  its  rank  in  the  country, 
as  compared  with  Westminster,  was  reversed. 

Winchester  was  founded  in  the  first  instance  for  the 
main  purpose  of  teaching  grammar,  the  first  of  the  seven 
liberal  arts,  but  there  is  no  difficulty  in  reconstructing  its 
curriculum  exactly,  because  we  have  a  detailed  account  of 
the  education  given  both  at  Eton  and  at  Winchester  in 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  after  the  Reforma¬ 
tion,  and  we  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  educa¬ 
tion  given  at  Westminster  at  the  same  time  was  of  a  very 
similar  character.*  At  this  period  the  school  consisted  of 
seven  forms,  of  which  the  first  three  belonged  to  the 
upper  and  the  last  three  to  the  lower  school,  the  fourth, 
or  centre  form,  belonging  partly  to  one  division  and 
partly  to  the  other.  At  Eton,  in  the  present  day,  the 
highest  form  is  the  sixth — the  remove,  between  the  fifth 
and  fourth  forms,  occupies  something  of  the  position 
which  the  old  fourth  form  occupied.  The  fourth  form 
is  now  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  lowei  mastei, 

*  Maxwell  Lyte,  “Eton  College,”  ch.  viii. 


184 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


whereas  the  third,  second,  and  first  forms  have  almost,  if 
not  entirely,  ceased  to  exist.  At  five  o’clock  the  boys 
were  awakened,  by  one  of  the  prcepostors  or  monitors, 
with  the  cry  of  “  Surgite  while  dressing  they  chanted 
Latin  psalms.  Each  boy  had  to  make  his  own  bed  and 
to  sweep  the  floor.  They  then  went  down  stairs  two-and- 
two  to  work.  At  Winchester  there  was  a  morning  service, 
at  Eton  none.  The  usher  read  prayers  in  the  long  dor¬ 
mitory  at  six  ;  work  went  on  till  nine,  when  there  was 
probably  a  short  breakfast.  At  ten  o’clock  the  boys  were 
summoned  for  prayers.  Dinner  was  served  at  eleven, 
and  the  boys  marched  to  the  hall  and  back  again  in 
double  file.  They  then  worked  continuously  from  twelve 
to  three,  they  played  from  three  to  four,  had  lessons  from 
four  to  five,  and  then  supper.  From  six  to  eight  the 
boys  worked  under  the  superintendence  of  the  monitors, 
having  at  seven  a  draught  of  beer  and  a  slice  of  bread. 
At  eight  they  went  to  bed.  In  the  summer  more  time 
was  allowed  for  recreation  ;  on  Friday  the  scholars  were 
punished  for  the  faults  they  had  committed  during  the 
week,  and  on  that  day  and  Saturday  they  were  examined. 
Latin  was  almost  the  only  subject  of  study.  The  lower 
boys  had  to  decline  and  conjugate  words,  and  the  upper 
boys  to  repeat  rules  of  grammar.  Some  Latin  composi¬ 
tion  was  done  every  day — themes  by  the  lower  forms, 
verses  by  the  two  upper.  In  the  first  form  they  studied 
Cato  and  Yives  ;  in  the  second  Terence,  Lucian,  and 
JEsop,  the  last  two  in  Latin  ;  in  the  third,  Terence, 
AEsop,  and  Sturm’s  selections  from  Cicero’s  letters  ;  in 
the  fourth,  Terence,  Ovid’s  “  Tristia,  ”  and  the  epigrams 
of  Martial,  Catullus,  and  Sir  Thomas  More  ;  in  the  fifth 
Ovid’s  u  Metamorphoses,”  Horace,  Cicero’s  letters, 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


185 


Valerius  Maximus,  Lucius  Floras,  and  Justin  ;  in  the 
sixth  and  seventh,  Caesar’s  “  Commentaries,”  Cicero 
“  de  Officiis”  and  “  de  Amicitia,”  Vergil,  Lucan,  and  at 
last  the  Greek  grammar.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  edu¬ 
cation  is  entirely  of  the  humanistic  type  as  conceived  by 
Sturm  of  Strasburg. 

Passing  over  two  hundred  years,  we  have  again  a  com¬ 
plete  account  of  the  education  given  at  Eton  about  the 
year  1770.  As  it  was  then  it  remained  unchanged  until 
within  the  memory  of  men  now  living.  During  that  in¬ 
terval,  while  the  education  still  remained  humanistic,  it 
had  undergone  considerable  alteration,  principally  owing 
to  the  success  and  influence  of  the  Jesuits.  Their  arrange¬ 
ment  of  the  week  had  been  copied.  Monday,  Wednes¬ 
day,  and  Friday  were  whole  school  days,  Tuesday  a 
whole  holiday,  Thursday  a  half  holiday,  and  Saturday  a 
u  play”  at  four,  that  is,  something  between  the  two. 
One  change  of  great  importance  had  been  introduced  in 
the  shortening  of  the  school  lessons.  The  regular  lessons 
on  a  whole  school  day  were  from  eight  to  nine,  from 
eleven  to  twelve,  from  three  to  four,  and  from  five  to  six. 
Eighty  years  later  these  hours  had  dwindled  down  to 
three  quarters  of  an  hour,  and  sometimes  did  not  exceed 
half  an  hour.  The  first  school  began  at  about  seven. 
On  whole  holidays  the  boys  might  lie  in  bed  till  nine. 
They  had  chapel  at  eleven,  and  again  at  three.  This  was 
the  regular  course  of  things,  but  as  in  the  case  of  the  Jes¬ 
uits  it  was  terribly  broken  in  upon.  All  saints’  days 
were  holidays,  and  the  eves  of  saints’  days  half  holidays  ; 
to  these  were  added  founders’  days  and  court  days.  The 
system  of  shifting  the  work  which  ought  to  have  been 
done  on  one  day  to  another  was  only  an  additional  cause 
13 


186 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


of  idleness  and  confusion.  The  head  master  taught  the 
sixth  and  fifth  forms  together — about  120  boys.  In  a 
regular  week  the  boys  had  ten  construing  lessons,  and 
seven  saying  lessons.  The  authors  included  Homer, 
Lucian,  Vergil,  Scriptores  Romani,  a  selection  book  of 
Latin  prose  and  Poetae  Graeci,  a  very  elegant  compilation 
of  Greek  lyric  poetry.  Nearly  all  the  poetry  construed 
was  supposed  to  be  said  by  heart.  On  Saturday  and 
Monday  mornings  the  sixth  form  and  upper  fifth  con¬ 
strued  part  of  a  Greek  play,  which  was  nearly  all  the  pro¬ 
vision  made  in  the  school  for  teaching  Attic  Greek. 

We  are  told  that  the  sixth  and  fifth  forms  were  sup¬ 
posed  to  read  in  their  leisure  hours  certain  books  of  u  eru¬ 
dition,”  as  the  Jesuits  would  call  it,  for  the  making  of  a 
complete  scholar.  All  fifth  form  boys  wrote  three  Latin 
exercises  a  week  :  an  original  theme,  a  copy  of  original 
Latin  verses,  and  a  copy  of  Latin  lyrics  on  the  same  sub¬ 
ject,  In  the  sixth  form  Greek  iambics  took  the  place  of 
lyrics,  but  this  was  probably  a  late  addition,  and  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  the  Greek  was  very  pure  Attic.  The 
books  read  in  the  other  forms  were  the  Odes  of  Horace, 
Pomponius  Mela,  Cornelius  Nepos,  Farnaby’s  Selection 
of  Epigrams,  Caesar,  Terence,  and  Greek  Testament. 
The  Greek  and  Latin  grammars  were  learned  by  heart. 
For  three  hours  in  the  week  the  younger  boys  were 
taught  writing  and  arithmetic,  some  of  the  fifth  form 
geography  or  algebra,  and  those  who  stayed  long  enough 
went  through  parts  of  Euclid.  No  mention  is  made  of 
history,  and  none  of  science  ;  competition  was  not  carried 
to  such  an  extent  as  in  the  Jesuit  schools.  The  boys 
were  tried  on  passing  from  one  form  to  another.  A  sys¬ 
tem  of  money  rewards  for  good  boys  was  in  force,  paid 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


187 


by  the  dames,  but  put  down  to  the  account  of  the  parents. 
The  sy stem  of  u  challenges”  obtained  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  school,  and  flogging  was  established  as  a  recognized 
mode  of  punishment.  The  praepostors,  or  sixth  form, 
had  large  monitorial  powers,  which  they  have  retained 
at  Winchester  and  at  Harrow,  but  have  lost  at  Eton. 

Such  were  the  studies  of  Eton  in  her  palmiest  days, 
the  days  of  George  III.,  when  she  possessed,  in  conjunc¬ 
tion  with  Christchurch,  the  undisputed  privilege  of  train¬ 
ing  the  statesmen  and  rulers  of  England.  W e  see  that  it 
is  a  purely  humanistic  system,  founded  on  the  basis  of 
Sturm,  but  modified  and  rendered  milder  and  more  ele¬ 
gant  by  the  example  of  the  courtly  Jesuits,  who  were 
then  the  favored  preceptors  of  the  French.  The  great 
merit  of  this  system,  with  all  its  defects,  was  that  every 
one  believed  in  it.  The  energy  of  private  tutors  made  up 
for  its  more  serious  intellectual  deficiencies,  and  the  intro¬ 
duction,  by  accident  or  design,  of  the  principles  of 
Locke  made  the  school  a  training  ground  for  manliness 
and  independence  of  character  ;  only  a  few  discontented 
critics  wished  for  anything  better.  A  clever  boy  began 
Latin  at  six,  and  Greek  at  eight  ;  from  his  earliest  years 
he  was  taught  that  a  scholar  and  a  gentleman  were 
synonymous  terms  ;  he  went  to  a  public  school  at  nine  or 
ten,  or  sometimes  even  at  six  :  as  he  was  examined  in 
the  classics  for  entrance,  his  father  stood  by  with  tears  in 
his  eyes.  His  Latin  verses  were  the  admiration  of  his 
school-fellows,  his  English  verses  were  as  correct  and 
polished  as  his  Latin.  No  one  had  any  doubt  as  to  the 
excellence  of  the  product  ;  the  supply  was  not  large,  but 
it  was  sufficient.  It  was  enough  to  furnish  a  little  culture 
to  the  Cabinet,  a  little  refinement  to  the  Bar,  a  little 


188 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


learning  to  the  Church,  and  enough  scholarship  to 
schoolmasters  to  keep  up  the  yearly  tale  of  Greek  and 
Latin  versifiers.  All  this  is  now  changed.  Boys  often  do 
not  begin  Latin  till  they  are  twelve,  and,  if  we  are  to  be¬ 
lieve  what  we  are  told,  learn  little  Greek  or  none  at  all. 
They  go  to  a  public  school  at  the  age  at  which,  three 
hundred  years  ago,  they  used  to  go  to  the  university  ; 
they  stay  at  the  university  till  they  are  grown  men.  Par¬ 
ents,  so  far  from  preparing  their  sons  in  the  subjects  in 
which  the  public  schools  will  examine,  try  to  redeem  the 
time  which  they  fear  will  be  inevitably  lost.  They  do 
their  best  to  teach  their  children  everything  which  they 
will  not  learn  at  school  ;  they  make  them  learn  French, 
music,  and  history  ;  the  well-educated  boy  on  entering 
school  is  placed  according  to  his  classical  attainments, 
and  is  made  to  live  with  companions  who  have  received 
neither  the  old  learning  nor  the  new.  Such  are  the  dis¬ 
advantages  of  a  state  of  transition.  Unless  we  make 
haste  to  organize  our  school  education  on  some  intelli¬ 
gible  basis,  we  shall  arrive  at  a  condition  in  which  our 
Cabinet  is  not  cultured,  our  Bar  is  not  refined,  our  clergy 
is  not  learned,  and  our  schoolmasters  are  not  scholars. 

The  study  of  the  history  of  educational  theories  will 
have  been  of  little  service  if  it  does  not  show  us  that  any 
system  of  education  to  be  efficient  must  be  arranged  on 
some  well  understood  plan,  in  which  the  end  is  kept  in 
view  from  the  very  first.  Whether  wre  prefer  the  human¬ 
istic,  the  realistic,  or  the  naturalistic  method,  whether  we 
try  to  give  a  classical  education,  a  scientific  education 
based  or  mathematics,  or  a  modern  literary  education 
based  on  modern  languages,  we  shall  only  succeed  if  we 
direct  our  efforts  steadily  to  the  attainment  of  our  ob- 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


189 


ject.  At  present  we  too  often  attempt  to  teacli  every¬ 
thing  at  once,  and  therefore  teach  nothing  ;  we  embrace 
all  the  subjects  of  a  liberal  education,  and  accomplish  the 
learning  of  none  of  them. 

Next  to  the  conflict  of  studies,  the  most  interesting 
question  connected  with  our  public  schools  is  the  type 
which  is  best  suited  for  a  national  system  of  education  in 
England.  If  we  desire  to  bring  liberal  education  within 
the  reach  of  all  classes,  and  to  scatter  schools  all  over  the 
country,  of  what  nature  should  these  schools  be  ?  The 
type  most  in  favor  with  us  at  the  present  day  is  that  of 
large  boarding-schools.  But  such  schools  are,  in  their 
present  size,  the  growth  of  comparatively  few  years.  The 
Rugby  of  Dr.  Arnold  scarcely  rose  above  three  hundred 
students  ;  and  the  local  grammar  schools,  in  which  so 
many  great  men  have  been  educated,  must  always  have 
been  small  in  numbers.  IIow  far,  then,  is  it  possible  at 
large  boarding-schools  to  carry  out  any  of  those  precepts 
which  the  history  of  education  presents  to  us  as  desir¬ 
able  ?  The  one  essential  condition  to  the  acquisition  of 
wider  knowledge  is  a  desire  of  learning  in  the  pupil.  The 
chief  defect  in  all  schemes  of  quick  and  easy  education  is 
that  they  presuppose  no  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
learner,  whereas  every  schoolmaster  knows  that  more  than 
half  his  time  and  skill  is  taken  up  with  overcoming  that 
resistance.  In  the  old  days  of  public  schools  there  was 
much  idleness,  boys  were  left  much  to  themselves,  but 
those  who  read  at  all  were  accustomed  to  read  in  a  literary 
spirit.  Some  corner  of  the  library,  some  favorite  shelf 
of  books,  perhaps  the  peculiar  care  of  some  exceptional 
tutor,  sowed  in  the  mind  of  an  able  boy  the  first  seeds 
of  wide  and  commanding  learning.  There  are  man\ 


190 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


traces  in  old  letters  and  diaries  and  school  papers  of  the 
existence  of  this  real  love  of  solid  knowledge.  The  “  Mi¬ 
crocosm”  of  Canning,  the  “  Etonian”  of  Praed,  the 
“  Rugby  Magazine”  of  Clough,  are  evidences  of  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  a  literary  spirit.  Boys  took  a  lively  interest  in 
each  other’s  compositions,  whether  in  living  or  dead  lan¬ 
guages.  A  good  copy  of  Latin  verses  would  be  passed 
from  hand  to  hand,  and  copied  into  a  book.  Several  ex¬ 
tract  books  of  this  kind  are  extant,  dating  from  the  latter 
part  of  the  last  century.  The  excellence  which  is  now 
too  often  valued  only  as  a  means  of  obtaining  marks  and 
scholarships  was  then  estimated  at  its  own  intrinsic  worth. 
It  is  a  question  whether  this  has  not  to  some  extent  passed 
away.  School  magazines  are  devoted  to  school  news, 
and  rarely  contain  compositions  fitted  for  a  place  in  per¬ 
manent  literature.  It  is  complained  that  boys  seldom 
read  for  their  own  amusement,  and  are  still  less  often  in 
the  habit  of  discussing  points  of  literary  criticism  and 
style.  Debating  societies  abound  at  public  schools,  but 
it  may  be  doubted  if  the  discussions  in  them,  although 
carried  on  with  readiness  and  fluency,  exhibit  any  of  the 
higher  qualities  of  literary  excellence. 

Nor  can  it  be  wondered  at  if  this  is  the  case.  The 
chief  aim  of  the  head  master  of  a  large  boarding-school  is 
to  keep  his  pupils  constantly  employed.  He  has  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  only  remedy  for  the  evils  which 
result  from  mixing  so  many  students  together  is  that  they 
should  have  as  little  time  as  possible  to  themselves.  Some 
head  masters  have  kept  cards  arranged  in  pigeon-holes  on 
which  is  written  what  every  boy  in  the  school  ought  to 
be  doing  in  every  one  of  his  waking  hours,  both  in  work 
and  play.  This  is  little  better  than  the  French  system  of 


EDUCATIONAL  THEOHIES. 


191 


extreme  surveillance.  Under  this  system  a  boy  lias  no 
leisure  for  thought  5  work  under  the  constant  stimulus  of 
competition,  play  organized  with  an  elaborate  scale  of 
graduated  prizes,  school  business  and  school  discipline  oc- 
cupy  the  whole  of  his  busy  life,  so  that  a  lad  of  nineteen 
at  the  head  of  a  great  school,  if  he  be  conscientious  and 
energetic,  is  as  hard-worked  as  a  man  of  thirty.  The 
common  enemy  of  boys  and  masters  is  the  lounger  or  the 
“loafer”  who  wanders  about  doing  nothing,  whose 
feeble  interest  in  the  affairs  of  life  is  never  fanned  into  an 
effective  flame,  who  grows  up  to  be  a  burden  to  himself 
and  others.  But  we  must  not  confound  him  with  the  se¬ 
rious,  though  perhaps  eccentric  student  who  shuns  the 
paths  of  men,  and  delights  in  the  river  side,  and  the  slope 
of  the  grassy  bank,  and  the  shade  of  protecting  elms.  In 
their  efforts  to  get  rid  of  the  lounger,  schoolmasters  are 
in  danger  of  throwing  out  the  child  with  the  bath,  and  of 
tearing  up  wheat  and  tares  together  with  the  same  impet¬ 
uous  grasp.  What  are  the  results  of  a  training  of  this 
kind  ?  A  healthy  mind  in  a  healthy  body.  But  the 
healthy  body  is  too  often  fitted  only  to  exist  in  the  open 
air,  and  will  break  down  under  the  strain  of  a  sedentary 
profession,  while  the  healthy  mind  has  no  furniture  but 
a  complex  of  prejudices  which  passes  under  the  name  of 
common-sense. 

Examples  arc  not  wanting  in  the  senate  and  elsewhere 
of  public  school  and  university  men  whose  laborious  lives 
have  been  the  appropriate  sequel  of  a  more  laborious 
youth.  But  our  modern  public  school  boy  too  often 
knows  no  such  experience.  His  path  of  virtuous  progress 
is  marked  out  with  fences  and  sign-posts,  the  road  is 
macadamized  with  guides  and  extract  books,  and  made 


192 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


smooth  and  easy  by  marks  and  examinations.  Nothing 
is  left  to  his  own  enterprise  and  ingenuity  ;  he  can  always 
tell  exactly  where  he  is,  and  is  sure  to  receive  at  the  end 
of  the  measured  mile  the  applause  of  his  approving  hack¬ 
ers.  He  knows  how  to  get  up  anything.  He  is  con¬ 
vinced  that  the  whole  duty  of  life  is  to  be  doing  some¬ 
thing — that  is,  to  be  going  in  for  some  competition.  To 
sit  in  an  easy  chair  and  read  a  book  is  laziness  in  his  eyes. 
His  conversation  and  his  thoughts  are  almost  entirely 
about  games.  There  is,  doubtless,  much  to  admix e  in  this 
purely  English  product  ;  he  is  far  superior  in  manliness 
and  vigor  to  a  Frenchman  or  an  Italian.  But  as  he  ad¬ 
vances  in  life,  and  leaves  his  boyhood  behind  him,  the 
gifts  which  he  has  stored  up  for  himself  become  of  less 
value.  At  the  university,  with  all  his  hard  work,  he  can¬ 
not  contend  against  those  who  have  worshipped  knowledge 
with  a  more  jealous  love.  He  misses  the  broad  and  con¬ 
venient  highway,  with  its  symmeti’ical  milestones  and  its 
regular  relays  of  official  plaudits.  He  has  to  make  his 
way  either  across  country  where  he  must  choose  his  own 
line  over  banks  and  fences,  or,  still  worse,  through  a 
piimeval  forest  of  unregulated  study,  not  yet  subdued  and 
made  accessible  for  the  passage  of  man.  The  most  val¬ 
uable  part  of  university  training,  the  clash  of  mind  upon 
mind,  is  closed  to  him,  because  his  studies  do  not  repre¬ 
sent  ideas  to  his  intelligence,  and  he  has  never  been  ac¬ 
customed  to  regard  the  things  he  has  had  to  learn  except 
as  a  wholesome  exercise,  to  be  varied  with  other  exer¬ 
cises  of  a  different  kind.  The  tripos  and  the  schools 
awaken  his  ardor,  but  he  soon  finds  that  even  in  them 
somethin^  more  than  mechanical  plodding’  is  necessary 
for  success.  In  the  world  he  is  not  likely  to  make  much 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


193 


of  a  figure  unless  chance  gives  him  scope  for  active  enter¬ 
prise. 

If  this  is  a  fair  picture  of  the  public  boarding-school 
system,  can  we  regard  it  as  satisfactory  ?  It  may  be  an¬ 
swered  that  although  the  few  may  lose  something,  the 
many  have  been  gainers,  that  our  public  schools  have  been 
entirely  reformed,  that  the  idleness  and  dissipation  com¬ 
mon  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  exist  no  longer.  But  in  all 
questions  of  the  higher  education  we  must  consider  not 
the  many  but  the  few  ;  we  must  test  our  system  by  seeing 
whether  it  is  really  capable  of  producing  work  of  first-rate 
excellence.  In  the  words  of  Mr.  F.  D.  Maurice,*  “  All 
experience  is  against  the  notion  that  the  means  to  pro¬ 
duce  a  supply  of  good  ordinary  men  is  to  attempt  nothing 
higher.  I  know  that  nine  tenths  of  those  whom  the  uni¬ 
versity  sends  out  must  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water,  but  if  I  train  the  ten  tenths  to  be  so,  depend  upon  it 
the  wood  will  be  badly  cut  and  the  water  will  be  spilt. 
Aim  at  something  noble,  make  your  system  such  that  a 
great  man  may  be  formed  by  it,  and  there  will  be  a  man¬ 
hood  in  your  little  men  of  which  you  do  not  dream.” 
Has  not  therefore  the  time  arrived  for  inquiring  carefully 
whether  our  present  system  of  large  boarding-schools  is 
the  most  desirable,  and  whether  we  are  not  in  danger  of 
losing  in  the  next  generation  some  of  our  most  valuable 
elements  of  culture  unless  we  adopt  an  organization  which 
preserves  and  guards  the  simple  love  of  work  and  of  ac¬ 
quisition  of  knowledge  which  is  the  natural  condition  for 
a  healthy  child  ?  The  best  means  of  effecting  this  is  by 
day-schools,  and  no  great  impulse  will  be  given  to  the 

*  Quoted  by  J.  S.  Mill  in  his  article  on  “  Civilization,”  from 
the  novel  of  “  Eustace  Conway.” 


194 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


secondary  education  of  England  unless  a  network  of  day- 
schools  is  drawn  over  the  country.  Day-schools  have 
many  advantages  over  their  rivals.  They  are  far  cheaper, 
because  the  boys  board  and  lodge  at  home,  and  the  mas¬ 
ters  are  willing  to  work  for  a  smaller  remuneration  be¬ 
cause  they  have  so  much  leisure  time  on  their  hands. 
Some  of  the  most  difficult  questions  of  discipline  do  not 
arise  in  them,  and  the  pursuance  of  their  educational  ob¬ 
jects  is  undisturbed  by  any  conflicting  currents.  The 
home  life  is  not  lost,  and  the  child  is  allowed  to  grow  up 
in  the  bosom  of  his  family.  Great  indeed  is  the  respon¬ 
sibility  thrown  upon  the  home,  and  if  that  is  bad  the  mas¬ 
ter’s  work  is  undone,  but  if  it  be  good  and  studious  it 
forms  his  most  valuable  auxiliary.  Much  of  the  industry 
and  learning  of  Scotland  is  attributable  to  this  cause. 
The  boy  on  his  return  home  rehearses  to  his  parents 
what  he  has  learned  from  his  master,  and  a  keen  interest 
is  felt  in  the  place  which  he  holds  in  his  class.  If  our 
experience  of  English  homes  is  different,  it  is  because  we 
have  not  learned  the  habit  of  superintendence,  and  be¬ 
cause  we  are  too  ready  to  throw  off  responsibility  when 
our  children  go  to  school,  and  to  think  that  their  educa¬ 
tion  is  a  matter  which  no  longer  concerns  us. 

In  countries  where  a  system  of  day-schools  is  under¬ 
stood,  children  become  a  source  of  education  to  their 
parents  ;  they  either  lead  them  over  the  paths  which  they 
themselves  have  trodden  in  earlier  years,  or  introduce 
them  to  new  fields  of  culture,  which  might  have  remained 
forever  closed  to  them.  It  may  be  urged  that  this  is 
only  possible  in  a  simple  state  of  society,  and  that  in 
times  of  greater  wealth  and  more  complex  civilization  the 
home  is  not  fitted  to  take  its  part  in  the  work  ;  the  chil- 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


195 


dren  of  a  successful  barrister,  of  a  hard- worked  member 
of  Parliament  or  man  of  business,  cannot  receive  their 
father’s  care,  and  in  many  cases  had  better  be  at  a  board¬ 
ing-school.  If  this  be  true,  the  school  should  be  as  like  a 
home  as  possible  in  its  essential  particulars,  offering  in¬ 
deed  a  wider  experience  and  opportunities  for  a  fuller 
play  of  character,  but  never  losing  the  simplicity  and  in¬ 
dustry  which  are  apt  to  disappear  in  large  institutions. 
It  may  be  true  that  the  most  distinguished  men  in  Eng¬ 
land,  both  in  the  universities  and  in  the  world,  have  been 
educated  at  large  boarding-schools  ;  but  the  experiment 
of  day-schools  has  never  been  fairly  tried.  If  the  flower 
of  English  youth  go  habitually  to  boarding-schools,  it  is 
not  strange  that  the  most  successful  Englishmen  come 
from  these  establishments.  Of  this  we  may  be  certain, 
that  the  greatness  of  a  country  is  dependent  upon  her 
schools  more  than  anything  else,  and  that,  unfortunately, 
not  in  the  present  generation,  but  in  the  next.  What  lot 
are  we  preparing  for  our  children  ?  We  are  extending 
education  to  the  masses,  we  examine  more  than  we  ever 
did  before,  we  scarcely  leave  a  corner  for  the  dunce  or 
the  sluggard  to  creep  into.  But  all  this  is  of  little  worth 
unless  the  highest  culture  of  the  nation  is  maintained  at 
its  proper  level.  The  lycees  of  France  send  out  every 
year  masses  of  students  modelled  to  order  and  prepared 
to  pattern,  but  whatever  academical  enlightenment  France 
can  boast  of  during  the  last  fifty  years  she  owes  to  one 
institution  of  about  a  hundred  students,  the  Ecole  Nor- 
male.  Is  it  desirable,  in  the  interests  of  the  future  of  our 
country,  that  we  should  continue  to  increase  our  large 
public  boarding-schools,  in  which  it  is  difficult  to  secure 
that  literary  interest  should  ever  be  paramount,  or  should 


196 


EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES. 


we  rather  look  to  an  organized  system  of  day-schools 
drawn  over  the  country,  in  which  the  home  influence  will 
not  have  lost  its  force,  supplemented  in  exceptional  cases 
by  boarding-schools  of  the  size  of  Milton’s  ideal  academy, 
large  enough  to  embrace  all  varieties  of  life  and  charac¬ 
ter,  but  not  large  enough  to  destroy,  what  must  be  the 
vital  principle  of  every  successful  school,  a  real  and  living 
enthusiasm  for  literature  and  learning  ? 


INDEX 


jESC 

JEschines,  88 
iEsop,  21,  49,  184 
Agesilaus,  118 
Alcuin,  38 
Anne,  Queen,  183 
Antoninus  Pius,  2G 
Aquaviva,  119 
Aristophanes,  9 

Aristotle,  4,  8,  15-17,  40,  42,  99, 
145 

Arnault!,  128,  130,  132-134 
Arnauld,  Angelique,  127, 133, 134 
Arnold,  Dr.,  189 
Arnstadt,  75 

Ascham,  Roger,  85-90,  95 
Atticus,  22 

Bacon,  51,  52,  118 
Basedow,  107,  136,  142 
Basil,  122 
Bede,  38 
Beckx,  127 

Bell  and  Lancaster,  156 
Bentliam,  Sir  S.,  99 
Blomfield,  Bishop,  131 
Bonstetten,  154 
Buchanan,  George,  84 
Buffon,  145 
Busby,  183 

Caesar,  89,  122,  123,  185,  186 
Callias,  6 
Calvin,  1  7 


DUB 

Canning,  190 

Capella,  38 

Castiglione,  44 

Cato,  49,  95,  184 

Cato  the  Censor,  23 

Catullus,  184 

Cebes,  94,  95 

Cecil,  Sir  William,  87 

Charles  the  Great,  36,  38,  40 

Charles  V.,  48 

Cheke,  Sir  John,  86 

Chelsea  College,  57 

Chrysostom,  123 

Cicero,  19,  21,  23-26,  38,  42-46, 
47-50,  72,  77,  89,  97,  98,  122, 
123,  129,  184 
Clough,  190 
Colet,  John,  44 
Columella,  95 

Comenius,  46,  56-67,  68,  91,  92, 
122 

Cowley,  91 
Curtius,  123 
•  Cyprian,  36 

Dante,  43 

Demosthenes,  43,  50,  88,  98,  123 

Descartes,  119,  133 

Despautere,  130 

Dialectic,  12-14 

Diomedes,  38 

Donatus,  38 

Diibner,  31 


198 


INDEX. 


EGG 

Egger,  158 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  48,  86,  183 
Erasmus,  43,  44,  86 
Etienne,  131 

Eton,  50,  87,  181,  182,  183,  184, 
187 

Euclid,  186 
Euripides,  7,  97,  123 

Earn  a  by,  186 
Fellenberg,  160 
Fichte,  47,  166,  174 
Florus,  185 

Frederick  the  Great,  134 
Frobel,  136,  144,  164,  168 

Gargantua,  69,  71,  72,  73-76 
George  I.,  183 
George  III.,  183,  187 
Gibbon,  128 
Goethe,  96 

Grandgousier,  69,  71,72 
Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  123 
Groote,  Gerhard,  41,  42 

Hadden,  Mr.,  87 
Hadrian,  26 
Hamilton,  55,  109 
Harrow,  187 
Hartlib,  90,  91 
Henry  VI.,  182 
Henry  VII.,  182 
Herbart,  166,  174-180 
Herodian,  123 
Herodotus,  42 
Hesiod,  123 

Homer,  6,  8,  21,  43,  50,  102,  123, 
186 

Horace,  42,  50,  123,  184,  186 

Jacotot,  55 
Jerome,  36 

Jesuits,  118,  127,  185,  186 
Jouvency,  120 
Justin,  185 


PAP 

Kant,  135,  136,  171-173 
Kempen,  Thomas  of,  42 
Kothen,  54 

Lancelot,  128,  131,  132,  133 
Laynez,  119 
Legrand,  155 

Leopold,  Grand  Duke,  154 
Livius  Andronicus,  21 
Livy,  90,  123 

Locke,  79,  85,  102-118,  136,  140, 
168 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  119 
Lucan,  185 
Lucian,  123,  184,  186 
Lullius,  78 
Luther,  46,  47 

Macaulay,  116 
Martial,  184 
Mason,  Mr.,  87 
Mela,  Pomponius,  186 
Melanchthon,  46,  47 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  98,  99 
Mill,  James,  129 

Milton,  John,  18,  57,  79,  90-102, 
116 

Montaigne,  68,  79-85,  102,  105, 
106,108,112,136 
More,  Thomas,  44,  184 
Music,  Greek,  4,  9 

Nepos,  Cornelius,  122,  186 
Newman,  Dr.,  37 
Newton,  45,  117 
Nicole,  128, 133 

Oberlin,  155 
Orbilius,  20 
Origen,  35 
Ovid,  42,  122,  184 
Oxenstiern,  53 

Pantagruel,  76 
Papinian,  77 


INDEX 


199 


PAS 

Pascal,  Jacqueline,  128, 130,  133, 
134 

Pericles,  8 . 

Persius,  3 

Pestalozzi,  13G,  142,  144,  151,  165 
Peter,  Mr.,  87 
Petrarch,  43 
Petty,  Sir  William,  90 
Plwedrus,  122,  129 
Pharnabazus,  119 
Pindar,  8,  99,  123 
Plato,  4,  6,  8-15,  42,  46,  77,  94, 
97 

Plautus,  50,  1 29 
Pliny,  145 

Plutarch,  42,  94,  95,  98,  122 
Ponocrates,  72 
Port  Koval,  127,  134 
Praed,  190 
Priscian,  38 

Quintilian,  18,  21,  26-34,  38,  47, 
77 

Kabelais,  68-79, 102, 109,  112,  136 

liacine,  134 

Kakoczi,  58 

Kamsauer,  158,  159 

Kanke,  126 

Katke,  or  Katich,  46,  53,  54,  55, 
89,  95 

Robinson  Crusoe,  145 
Roothan,  127 

Rousseau,  79,  103,  109,  112,  134, 
152,  168 
Rugby,  1 89 

Sacchini,  120 
Sackville,  Sir  Richard,  88 
St.  Augustine,  36 
St.  Paul,  40,  50 
Sainte-Beuve,  131 
Sallust,  42,  123 


ZIN 

Savoy  College,  57 
Seneca,  18 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  107 
Socrates,  171 
Sophie,  150 
Sophists,  6 
Sophocles,  98,  123 
Spartans,  8 

Spencer,  Herbert,  45,  112,  114 
Sturm,  John,  of  Strasburg,  46,  48- 
50,  54,  89,  103,  126,  184,  185, 
187 

Tacitus,  22 

Terence,  42,  50,  54,  89, 129,  184, 
186 

Tertullian,  36 
Thomas  Aquinas,  48 
Thucydides,  42,  99,  123 
Tillemont,  134 
Trajan,  26 

Trivium  and  Quadrivium,  5 

Udal,  Nicholas,  87 

Valerius  Maximus,  185 
Varro,  95 

Vergil,  21,  42,  43,  49,  122,  123, 
129,  184-186 

Vittoririo  da  Feltrc,  43,  44 
Vives,  184 
Voltaire,  135 

Westminster,  50,  122, 181-183 
Winchester,  50,  57,  181  -184, 
187 

Wittenberg,  47 
Wotton,  Mr.,  87 
Wykeham,  William  of,  181 

Xenophon,  97 

Zinzendorf,  154 


THE  END. 


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